My Hero Adventurer!
by Psychedelic0Kitty
Summary: Inspired by the 2nd season 2 ending, this story is set in an AU where our heroes are on an island full of knights in shining armour, handsome princes, powerful magicians and dangerous dragons! What will be in store for quirkless Izuku on his travels in search for power, friendship and fun? Story follows a similar layout to BNHA and will cover a variety of genres
1. Chapter 1

**_This is the first test chapter of what I hope is many chapters to come, inspired by the second ending of season 2, set in the AU._**

 ** _I hope you enjoy!_**

* * *

Chapter One

The inky skies and dotted stars betrayed that it was night time in Izuku's mind. Behind his closed eyelids, he had somehow travelled to the shallow stream where all of his classmates would gather as kids to play adventure games and hop across the stone steps telling stories.

Strangely, Izuku was unsure of why he decided to come here. He had never fit in with the other boys. He never had, and he never would. Maybe this was because their voices could speak louder and their imaginations stretch wilder? Maybe it was because they could fight stronger and would beat him at wrestling without using even half of their strength, but not holding back despite this to earn everyone there a laugh.

Everyone but him.

If he had any sense, he would have long since stopped running after them only to find himself at the wrong end of their violent taunts.

If it hurt him so badly, one would think he would simply shut himself away and avoid them.

Izuku twisted in his sleep, his stomach burning at the powerful memory of harsh looks, patronising jokes and brutal pranks that often resulted in him being in agony. There definitely wasn't anything fun about these encounters. So why did Izuku run after them and stay every single time?

He didn't know. He had forgotten his reason years ago.

The child was on the verge of losing it, having fallen onto his back in the thick slosh of muddy water for the last time he could tolerate and hearing darkness take over as their laughs contorted into the cackles of wicked carnivorous hyenas, rising up and creating a border that surrounded him.

And then suddenly, the darkness lit up like an explosion, and explosively, a voice screamed out at him loud enough to penetrate the tornado of blackness encircling and hurting him.

 _"DEKU! You're always holding up the group you lowly slug! Can't your stubby legs move any faster?"_

The corner of his sleeping lips curled up at the familiar warmth that settle into his stomach. He relaxed, being snatched up by the palms of an aggressive grasp that clutched too hard on his delicate, infant skin. Despite these words, Izuku had been placed miraculously back on his feet; the boy responsible for rendering the hyena's back into giggling children glowing radiantly as he insulted him for laughs that would have cut through Izuku sharper than any other's insults if it weren't for the fact that they were spoken by the one boy he appreciated it from. The boy who's face he couldn't quite make out...

This wasn't the first time _he_ had appeared in his mind.

His identity was an enigma to him, but somehow he felt as close to him as the soft, stitched green bunny teddy he cradled tightly in his arms every night.

And yet, _he_ was a blur. Some fact were set hard in stone: this boy was the most popular among all their friends, this boy was always looked up to and this boy's existence and words were final in their group as he was the most charismatic reader, the strongest wrestler fastest runner and most prodigious quirk user in maybe the whole school.

When this boy was the one to call his names and hurt him, somehow it wasn't so bad. Upon waking, Izuku often recalled it as ""quite nice in fact."

But like all dreams, the light behind the glowing, spiky, pale hair of the boy eventually became too bright and all he heard was the accosting voice raining down on him.

"YOU'RE HOPELESS DEKU!"

Green eyes peeked open to see the sun streaming in from the whole in the stone building he called a window. He was sitting in his bed, made of the strongest oak he and his mother could find, with a hand stitched blanket (like every other item of cloth in the house) comprised of several old blankets interwoven together.

Unfortunately for him, the suns rays didn't merge into the wild hair of a boy. He was in his room alone, tucked up under his bed that felt as heavy as being buried alive.

He pulled himself up, bunny in his lap staring at the window serenely.

Over time, Izuku began to realise that the boy in his dreams was merely a nonexistent figment of his imagination - someone constructed by his mind as a sort of guardian angel figure, maybe as a way of coping with the harsh treatment of others.

It was far too convenient that, to make up for him being a magic-less, vulnerable freak, he would have a best friend with him protecting him who also happened to be the best at everything and someone with enough authority to stop the others. _Yeah right._ No such person had ever existed. He hadn't been around back then, and he wasn't around now.

The sad thing wasn't that he probably first created him while being drowned, beaten or abused, but rather, the fact that even in his imagination, a young Izuku couldn't envision a guardian angel character that actually respected him enough to treat him right. In fact, the so called angle probably humiliated him the most.

Izuku sighed in his bed, brushing back his thick jade hair before heading downstairs to make breakfast for his mother.

It was only Izuku and his mother in their vast empty home. They had lived this way for as long as Izuku could remember in a compact village of around fifteen other households. In their close community, there were compulsory jobs assigned to everyone. His neighbour to the left owned a nursery to care for the toddlers and babies so their parents could continue completing their work. He often saw a minimum of ten children being delivered their by their relatives every day.

His neighbours to the right on the other hand owned an elixir shop and pharmacy. He was an old man nearing his 200th year of life, rumoured to be the hybrid offspring of a warlock and an elf (or many other possible variations whispered fearfully by the children) as an explanation for why he had lived for so long.

Izuku used to be afraid of him because the other children told such scary stories. They used to knock on his door and run, but tie Izuku's shoelaces together so when he tried to scatter with them, he fell flat on his face and ended up taking the blame as the creepy old man opened the door and looked down at him.

The old man was a strange one; he often knew the children where coming, and raced out so fast he was flying, leaving the children screaming and sprinting for their life. Izuku was the first to notice however, that if he really wanted to catch them all and turn them into whatever strange potion, he could have done it with ease. With teary seven year old eyes, Izuku noticed as he looked up from the doorstep with grazed knees and aching ankles, that the old man was in fact cackling to himself as he chased them away.

Over time, they ended up becoming friends, strangely enough, and Gran Torino would often patch him up and offer him healing spells so his mother wouldn't find out about the bullying. It was common knowledge that the old man's spells worked not only fast, but well too, as his own impeccable physical state for his age was a visible example.

Between these two busy and vital buildings, there was Izuku and his mother's humble mushroom abode. His mother was a seamstress, but she also accepted jobs for washing clothes, and as for him, he specified as a weapons maker.

It was a hobby of his to look at the fighters and design multiple swords, shields, hammers or other tools inspired by their fighting style, allowing them to choose the ones they desired and put the rest up for sale on his shelf.

Eventually, this shelf grew in number to be an entire shop on its own, so Izuku didn't have to make any new weapons truly. But the truth was, he loved his hobby and couldn't stop because they carried a piece of his heart with them into battle, where Izuku sadly could never go. Visualising himself as the heroic wielder kept him alive, dreaming of facing many adventures other than this simple, boring domesticated quiet life of his.

If only he had been born with the ability to wield magic into a quirk, then _their_ lives would be completely different.

Tragically, the green eyed teen wasn't the only one suffering because of his incompetence. His existence alone was a liability to the village. He and his mother were forced to pay a monthly fine of 50% of their wages, as well as regular taxes, so they wouldn't be forced out of the village.

It was unfair, as they gave just as much to the village as anyone else did, but because of this rule, most of their money was spend on food and work supplies.

All of Izuku's clothes were hand-me-downs assembled from assorted extra material from making finer clothes for others. This he didn't mind, but it was seeing his mother chasing after him so stressed, not creating thick enough winter clothes for herself so he wouldn't be the one struggling to endure it that really irritated him.

As wrong as it was, he couldn't say anything against the leaders, because it would be held against him with ease. After all, he was a quirkless, magicless freak. He could barely be considered a human.

But it wasn't all bad.

 _If it weren't for his mother and carpentry, he would have become a slave at age 12._

* * *

"No meat today...?" Izuku asked absentmindedly as he stared at the plate of baked potatoes and boiled carrots before him.

"Ah, I'm sorry Izuku. I just didn't have time to run to the farm since three new jobs came in today." She kissed his head over dotingly, dishing out extra carrots and even a mini cob of sweet corn hastily onto his plate.

"I'll make an extra juicy steak for you tomorrow to make up for it."

"I-It's fine re-"

"In fact, here," She grabbed some silver from her pocket and slipped it into his. He didn't fail to notice the way her warm hands were scarred with tiny pricks and scratching from hard scrubbing and needlework. "Why don't you run to the farm for me after dinner, you haven't been out the house all day. I'm sure you'll appreciate the break." She smiled.

He smiled back, "What about the store?"

"I'll take care of it and write down the details of anyone who comes in. Okay?"

He nodded in agreement and finished his food quickly, waving goodbye and pulling on his bag. He waved and smiled at the woman waiting at the door for Gran Torino. She was a local nurse for the medical specialist, who came frequently to collect antiseptics and healing potions. She smiled curtly, but her head turned away with haste.

He swallowed. _What rumours had been circling about him this time?_

Despite it being his first time out of the house in the whole day, the peeking sun was already pink with dusk, dying all the white flower bushes and the chalk coloured pavement stones orange.

He breathed out at the fresh air, not realise how cooped up he had been in his compact little shop room. For anyone else, the highly stacked weapons hanging and gleaming up above their heads would quickly become more distraughting and claustrophobic than fascinating, but for Izuku his shop was a second home to him, comforting and as beautiful as the sparks of sunlight that caught in the reflections of the metal to make the room glimmer brightly.

As his mother had suggested, Izuku took his time. Like his small row of three houses, the rest of the village comprised of several other households that each had some other function built into them like his. Between these buildings were stone pathways, mini forest and many, many hills and turns.

As easy as it would be to follow the path and arrive at the edge of the village in no time, Izuku decided to stray and instead follow the large clear water river running along the outskirts, avoiding everyone he might possibly know with his hands in his pockets and his head down.

Eventually, the boy reached the point where not moving would lead out of the village. His eyes looked up along the path intently, it seemed almost as if the water shined brighter on the other side as it disappeared over the bend into the suspenseful forest shadows. He wondered what it was like there, what animals lurked, where the nearest people lived, if they would treat him as harshly as these people did, or if they would be even worse?

A bird shrieked and dived into the forest, snatching what appeared to be a rodent into it's beak. Izuku was reeled back into his reality, practically scurrying away back into the village, hoping nobody had seen him so close to venturing out towards what may have been a brighter or darker future.

The journey hadn't lasted nearly as long as he'd hoped. He cut his path short, back into the village, back into familiar territory and made his way towards the large looming silhouette of the wooden tower known as the farm. It was in clear sight, raising his hopes at the memory of the kind couple that owned it. He walked over the last bend, only to halt on his heels at the three figures standing outside.

He knew these boys. They were the same boys he had been nursed with, schooled with and raised with his whole life as if they were cousins. Despite this, these were the same boys who had deemed him inferior and treated him worse and worse with every year he grew older and the gap between them wider.

He almost didn't recognise them now, with how tall and strong they had become. They stood in a group in the low light with cigarettes between their teeth and sharp grins directed towards each other. They hadn't seen each other in nearly a year. Izuku cringed, wondering if they would recognise him.

Who was he kidding, unlike them he looked exactly the same. Still just as scrawny and weak as ever. Even his teachers had picked on him when they found out how useless he was at magic studies.

He gritt his teeth. He just had to walk by. He didn't have to say hi. Maybe in the darkeness they wouldn't see him.

He was dragging his feet he struggled by. His heart rate had increased. As much as he could dream of being an adult who kept a straight face and wasn't fazed by bullies, there was still a scared child in him that hated these boys and hated that he would have to see the people who had wronged him countlessly and gotten away with it for the rest of his life in this prison of a village.

Every year he waited for the magical change into a confident adult, and every year he would be disappointed. He wondered if he would still be afraid of them when he turned 16? When he turned 20? When he was a grown man with a family of his own, would he still be cowering away and hiding behind his invisible armour trembling?

He was right beside them now, and they hadn't even glanced in his direction. He smiled to himself, picking up the face and reaching out to the wooden handle of the door.

"Well if it isn't quirkless little Midoriya."

He stopped dead, an arm settling in front of his face, blocking the door with a weight that Izuku couldn't wrestle. He knew better than to try and out run them. Slowly, he turned to face them, seeing that only one of the group had noticed him, and with him, the other two turned to faced him too, grinning at him like entertained animals.

He swallowed. He wasn't wrong when he had spoken of the large gap between them. Somehow, though, standing in the centre of a circle of three the differences were made all too obvious, reminding him who was still frail and boyish in stature, and who had rightfully gained thick necks and muscle mass from all of the training and hard labour of being on the hunting team.

Some of them even had facial hair growing in.

He cringed back and tried to make peace. "I'm not here for any trouble.."

"Then why did you show your face?"

"Where are your flowers asshole? Didn't you bring a gift for Mrs Tanaka?"

He looked up nervously. He hadn't even considered bringing something... he was sure it wasn't a celebration, so maybe it was her birthday and he didn't know.

"Why yould I need a gift?"

All three of them pulled back disgusted, "Did you hear that she was attacked last night."

"Attacked, by what?"

Izuku of course was ignored, even spoken over. "Of course he heard, the whole village knows. I reckon he can't afford a gift thanks to being a quirkless drain of money, so he'd thought he'd play dumb."

"T-that's not true, I swear! I'm going in to see he-"

"Hey, hey," His arm was yanked out from behind him, swinging him back quickly so he found himself running in the opposite direction, away from the house and right into the metal plated chest of one of the other boys.

He clenched his teeth, feeling his nose sting and grow hot with blood drops. "I'm telling the truth, please, I need to see if she's okay."

"And then what?" He was shoved roughly. "Are you gonna take what you want from the store out of her sleeping hands? As if we'd let you do that."

He landed dishevelled into the dusty ground, it took all he had not to bite his lip and cry. Instead of standing, he stayed on his knees to show he wasn't fighting. _As if that had ever stopped them._

It had been made clear to him with each year as his treatment grew worse, they they weren't picking on him for his actions, they were picking on him for his existence.

"Ya know, we were hired tonight to stop low lived thieves like you from breaking in while her husband's busy taking care of her."

"No hard feelings Midoriya. We're just doing what we were paid to do."

"This would be your job too if you weren't such a sorry excuse of a magic-less fool."

Izuku gasped and sneezed as first flicker of magic popped on his face, making a loud booming sound that startled his heart nearly to stopping, leaving his wide eyes looking up fearfully. Everyone erupted into laughter, slapping his shoulders roughly at how he had gotten afraid of a simple shock spell. Completely harmless, but used to startle rodents into running towards a trap. He was like one of the rodents.

He felt tears prick his eyes, and lowered his head as he spoke.

"Please... I'm not a thief, I brought money. But I won't even buy it, I just want to see Ms Tanaka and wish her the best."

His hand clenched around his change as they sneered.

Suddenly, the stones on the dirt pieced into his skin. His hand seized in pain, causing him to cry out. It would have been a scream, but Izuku bit into the inside of his cheek so his sounds wouldn't wake up the resting farmers, knowing he was forsaking himself as he did this. The shoe crushing his fist pressed down until his hand was forced flat. He was struck by something hard in the stomach that made him keel over.

When he looked up, his scraps of change had been picked up and tossed into the pocket of somebody else who definitely didn't need it as much as he did.

"Thanks Midoriya, tell your fat mum I appreciate it."

"What's wrong with you!" Midoriya finally snapped, still held down onto the ground by the heel on his back. "I can understand your problem with me, but she never did anything to you. You've been buying your clothes from her your whole life - she stitches your clothes back together when you get back from hunting, why do you have to be so horrible?"

"Well she'd better. That's what she's paid to do." The same voice chuckled nonchalantly.

"If she wanted to be accepted, she shouldn't have given birth to a useless mouth to feed when you can't even hunt for yourself."

Izuku tasted a flash of rubber and flood of metallic blood in his teeth, and then the pain caught up to him as he realised he had been kicked in the mouth.

His blood stained the pavement, his cheek hitting the dirt as he looked up resentfully, earning more cold laughs.

There was no reaching them. Izuku closed his eyes tightly, hating himself all the more for being unable to defend himself or even feed himself. He had tried going vegetarian, but his mother had cried with guilt so much he accepted letting her feed him meat. He had tried appealing to hunt independantly, but he was strongly opposed by not only the council, but the people who cared about him too.

He could never be the sort of son who grew strong and protected his parents. He could never make his parents proud the way every other boy grew to do. In his mother's eyes, he would always be a tragic child in need of protection. _Weak. Vulnerable. Delicate. Powerless._

"What's the matter Midoriya, are your legs not working properly, stand up?"

He tried, but was hit on the head again, so hard his teeth chattered.

"Has sitting down all day turned your legs to rubber?"

Izuku pushed himself up again, stopping dead at the familiar burning in his legs that tingled up to his spine. He looked back agahst and saw his body emitting purple sparks. In the place of his legs, there were to flailing, useless rubber strips wiggling uselessly like ocean waves.

He gasped loudly, panicky and afraid, unable to feel his ankles, knees, toes or anything that was once there, stuck on the ground looking up like a fish out of water.

The boys transformed into hyena's again, and he turned into a child trembling on the floor without defence.

"S-stop..!"

"It's just a bit of magic Midoriya, no need to cry!" They joked.

He grit his teeth. Crying would only make it worse, but as hilarious as it was for them, it was terrifyingly foreign to him, and he didn't have the to power to change himself back.

"Want me to change your legs?" The voice was low and daunting, showing false kindness.

"Please," He nodded eagerly, eyes trembling in the low light of the glowing moon above them.

"As you wish."

Izuku felt the burn again, and immediately shot up trying to run. He discovered with great fear that although his legs had changed, they weren't his anymore, they were the legs of hopping buny, scaled up to his size.

He screamed at the sight, plunging forward, losing his balance and grasping onto the first thing he could for support as he tumbled.

It turned out to be the shirt of one of the bullies, who distastefully kicked him in the stomach.

In the next few minutes of jaunts and taunts and horrible pranks, he had become: a half tree, with legs rooted to the ground and branches creepily inching up his torso to consume him bit by bit, a half machine, with two sickeningly thin springs crushing under his weight and leaving him uselessly uncertain of movement, and then finally, a giant brocolli vegetable, horrified as his ex-classmates reached down to his legs and bit into him, tearing off his flesh until terrified screamed were streaming down his face.

He took an uncertain step forward, and knew he was going to fall onto his face again, when his own legs caught him.

He looked down to see through blurry wet eyes in the darkness that his legs were his and human again, all in one piece and comfortably in his shoes.

Izuku didn't stop shaking for several moments, his heart pounding as the cold crept into his bones, making him shiver with shakes and goosebumps.

It had been a simple illusion spell. Well, the last one had anyway, yet here he was, fifteen years old and crying bloody and dirty on the ground like an infant.

"Y-You people are evi-"

"Shut up!"

The hiss that was aimed at him was different. He was elbowed in the chest and sent hurling backwards, intentionally far away from them.

Now that he had stopped crying, and calmed the drum of his heart in his ears, he realised how deadly silent things had gotten. How tense the atmosphere was with the dead of night making his skin crawl.

All three of the bullies had their backs turned to him, hunched forward in a stance that was almost... protective.

His eyes started to water again. But this time, the fear was deeper. It was surreal. Intangible, unrealistic and undoubtedly life threatening.

He followed the boys... no the hunters' gazes up to the very top of the tall wooden farm tower that had become a looming shadow, being faced away from the cloudy moon.

 _"Is that...?"_

 _"It has to be."_

 _"You think they've come back to finish her off?"_

Their voices weren't only far, but quiet too. They sounded grim, so grim that Izuku automatically feared what they were seeing without even knowing what it was.

Straining his ears in the silence, he still couldn't understand their whispers. Their shoulders were tensed nearly into their necks, their fists were drawn and clenched tightly, but their magic wasn't activated. All their heads moved in synchronisation to look up at the steep hills behind the farm where the edge of the village melted into a thick, plush forest even darker now that the sun had said goodbye.

 _Were they as terrified as he was?_

But they were so strong. The quirkless teen couldn't see what they were all fixated on. _Could it be the creatures who had hurt Mrs Tanaka the farm owner? Was it back to finish her off like they had said? Surely three of them would be enough._

 _Izuku glanced back down from the waning moon to the three soldiers who were leaning into each other as if to merge into something bigger and more intimidating, perhaps a technique for hunting ( or maybe just a subconscious expression of their fear.)_

Then again, what on earth could have done that with her husband, the head of meat hunters, here with her? They were practically joined at the hip? What could have the strongest magic users in their village who journeyed into the forest to catch food trembling this way?

Izuku was unsure of what reckless part of his mind fuelled him into going forward, but despite knowing that he was magicless, weak and the vulnerable liability everyone declared him to be, he stepped forward on the tips of his leather padded toes and made his way across the hard rocky pathway he had recently been face down on, approaching closer to them until he could just about get a peak over the hi-

It was within a second of him coming into view of the pack of moon white giant wolves standing at the edge of the forest, exuding a brilliant opalescent silver fog around them as he wondered to himself in the silence of his mind if the ghostly creatures were real as they were stiller than the moon itself and standing so perfectly their fur resembled carved marble, one's head moved very slightly in his direction at the detection of his gradual movements forward and tilted back on its hind legs, suddenly jumping forwards like a flash of lightning.

Izuku's first foolish instinct was to whistle and pat his thighs as if communicating with a dog. That idea was blown away quickly and soon replaced with horror.

There was total silence as the wolf descended upon them. It's mouth was open, it's nostrils flared, eyes gleaming, claws outstretched and fangs fatal.

At this distance, it was huge. Far taller than a human. The green eyed boy could only stare up in wonder if he was dreaming, as it's jaws unhinged and a throaty growl of attack shook the earth.

But the hunters were faster. This is what they had been hired for to defend against. They pulled back to put some distance between them, two on the left and one in the centre. The two sides conjured up a thick net. In the centre, his hand outstretched to create a large shield that would catch the wolf and stop its claws embedding into his stomach. Izuku could see the wolf's claws being swallowed as the shield became sticky and pulled his body in (the way the teen himself had been pulled in a few times before), just in time for the net to fall around its fur coat trapping him to the ground like caught prey. He found his body tingling from head to toe with a new found exhilarating thrill of the hunt, and his lips turning up in a smile as his eyes gleamed like polished gems admiring the strength of his fellow villagers.

Excitement and fear alike had his heart racing, pumping blood around to his brain that made his eyes sparkle.

But a voice broke his fantasy, and his delusion shattered around him like a broken mirror. "M-my magic won't work!"

Izuku's lips fell into a gape. It happened in a single moment; one moment the boy's hand was flailing in the air helplessly trying to expel any kind of magic but to no prevail, the next his voice was squealing and the throat of a white beast was around his head, biting down with a sickening snap that rang in his ears horrifically, as blood spurted over the white coat of the beast and pavements in the dark.

The body collapsed lifeless and silent. The fresh scent of blood was released.

Izuku didn't even have time to fall back onto the ground. The boy's friends didn't have time to scream for their loss, as two other wolves fell in from the sides and knocked them together into the centre where the firsts body was collided with their's lifelessly.

He watched as claws impaled their stomachs, agonised cries raining out as their net popped into purple sparks pathetically. It was like the wolves were resistant to magic.

Izuku's legs couldn't move. The boys had become too dependant on magic to have brought any physical weapons with them. But he... his hand clenched around the five inch pocket knife he always carried on his leg (although illegally) for crafting and hunting purposes.

He had tried practicing with his own creations, but if anyone ever saw him with a fighting specialised weapon in his hand, even if it was his own, he could be reported and arrested as he was looked at in contempt by many villagers as someone who might become a danger to those around him thanks to his silly, childish games.

"Midoriya...go get help..!"

A voice sputtered, jerking him back to reality.

"Get he-" The nearest wolf chewed him into silence, his reaching hands falling flat.

Suddenly all the white wolves were looking at him. And they were close as well. Close enough to be on him before he could even blink.

He was sure they were all present in front of his eyes when he felt his world sent spinning at the harsh knocking force on his side.

"Guah!" He coughed out, rolling on the dirt several meeters before being caught in rough hands.

Hands...

Izuku's eyes snapped open, seeing a human boy with the most explosive, sunset eyes glaring at him with his pupils practically in slits.

This wolf... was human. And yet a wolf too as he experienced the agonising sting of sharp claws scraping his skin through his clothes as he was lifted by the shirt off of his feet and held up to the moon.

The boy howled, opening his mouth to reveal cuspids and incisors that weren't quite fangs but looked much more acicular than an ordinary humans.

He drew in sharply to bite Izuku, but the green haired slashed his knife into his lip, drawing blood and kicking him between the legs, until he was dropped on the floor.

The human's howls of pain caught the ears of the others, and suddenly, all inhuman eyes were on him.

He bolted off not a second before they pounced, knowing he couldn't out run them, knowing he couldn't stop and fight them. What were his choices?!

If he went back to the village, the others would come out without their weapons to rely on magic, a replay of what had just happened would encore... if by some miracle he reached home, his mother would be made a target, and as thick as their walls were, they wouldn't keep out such monsters... if he got to Gran Torino he might be saved but by the way things were going now, his body was dripping with sweat and muscles straining with overexertion already, heart in his throat and a heavy monstrous breath itching to taste him at his shoulders already.

At the deafening holler of a wolf right beside his ear signifying a sort of victory that doomed him, Izuku took a risk and stopped running, pushing all his energy into a leap, he bounded into a tree and rebounded right off, landing with his legs either side of the body of the wolf, that as expected had dived forwards for the kill.

He was on the back of a wolf. Not just any wolf, a giant wolf. A glowing wolf. A wolf that could kill humans like him every minute of the day if it wanted to.

Izuku knew he had to play his cards right, he knew the animals had only pounced due to his careless curiosity getting the better of him.

He couldn't afford another mistake.

The other wolves watched him, unsure of whether or not they should pounce. All eyes were fixated on him as they huffed and clicked their tongues, ears up violently for attack. But at this height, his head was well above theirs and he could see them all. It seemed like they were plotting something..

Izuku nearly jumped in realisation. His eyes glanced down for a split second, seeing the wolf below him leaning forwards away from him with its ears flattened in fear.

Unfortunately for him, in that split second taht he took his eyes away, all five of the other wolves darted forward one by one towards him with their claws out.

Izuku dug his nails into the neck of the one below him sharply and yanked his ears back. The wolf pulled back in pain just narrowly avoiding a slash from a paw that flinched, as if not wanting to hurt his own.

Then, he remembered the shock spell they had used on him. Izuku slammed his fist into the wolves nose so hard, his palm caught on a giant fang and cut, but the attack had worked at the wolf burst into a howling frenzy leaning back away from the rest of the pack, it retreated startled until it's back hit a tree.

"Ugh!" Izuku's body shook with the momentum of it, having hoped the one below him would keep running away. But now he was backed into a corner and all around him he heard huffing and growling in anger.

However, as he had planned, they were now in the shelter of a miniature in-village forest terrain.

"Ah..." This was a dangerous game to keep on playing. He was already bleeding, and his beating from his won villagers didn't help.

But at least they were away from the farm now.

Izuku gasped, narrowly avoiding a slash as his frightening observation froze him. The wolf boy wasn't here.

What was worse, the wolf before him tilted it's head upwards so he nearly lost his grip on the fur and howled loudly. His hands instinctively covered his ears, causing him to fall backwards harshly, sliding down as if on a slope towards his painful doom.

In the last moment, he managed to remember his knife and shoved the blade into the tree bark above him, making a jump where he grabbed ahold of the branch which swooped down, but thankfully didn't break with the addition of his weight.

This was a stupid idea, as it left his ankles dangling in front of their mouths. He was just about struggling to pulls his arms up when he felt his arms go weak on reflex, glancing down to see teeth tearing through the muscle on his calf.

"Ah!" His scream could have woken the entire village. But that was the last thing he wanted! Izuku pulled himself up onto thr tree with the last of his strength by some miracle. Grabbing his knife and beginning to climb upwards, one leg dangling behind him uselessly.

He fell forwards on his face, the rough bark scratching him as he turned pale, catching his breath.

He clenched his knife in his palm for support, as though it were a good luck charm and dared to look down at the glowering eyes and teeth below.

They were low on their knees. Likely if they jumped they could swing by him, but the branches would protect him by snagging at their teeth and gums well before they could take a bite out of him. If they weren't giant, they could have climbed in with him.

Izuku thanked the heaven's as his teardrops fell from the branches, reminding him of his height and dripping onto the fur of the beasts below.

If they wanted to, he knew they could knock this tree and him to the ground. But for some reason, they pulled back, turning swiftly with their trickling tails, and sprinting away.

Back where they had came... Back towards their remaining injured wolf boy.

His eyes widened in shock.

What was he doing up here? They were going to the farm, or worse to the rest of the village, and her he was clinging to a tree feeling sorry for his own life?!

He pushed himself up so hard his body burned, the fatigue in his muscles from climbing and pulling and slashing and sprinting finally catching up on him.

He didn't realise there was tears dripping from his eyes as he wiped the blood from his mouth and threw his blade with his arm that felt heavier that the branch carrying his weight, landing it into the spine of the whaling wolf at the back of the pack

"HEY!" He screamed, knowing from his pounding heart and flashing mind that he was about to die. "Where do you think you're going! If you turn your back to me, I'll throw more knives!"

Izuku knew they didn't speak his language, but somehow, he knew the message was conveyed as the blood speckled wolves turned to face him one by one, growling into the night murderously.

Murder. Izuku was about to be murdered to save the people who had always treated him like dirt. Was it for them really, or was it for him? Was this a sick sort of dream come true way to end his life, earn respect and live his dream all in one?

It wasn't important. Because by the time he had thought of his first shred of reasoning against doing it, he had already made his move.

He swallowed hard. _He'd always wanted to be a hero anyways_. Then down he jumped, away from the dominant height, away from the sheltering branches, and towards a show of heads waiting with their eyes locked on him among the darkness, eyes glaring, teeth snarling and throats groaning with the desire to rip his head right off of his corpse.

* * *

One of the hunters opened his eyes slowly, controlling his breathing as he took in the sounds around him, realising that most of the wolves were gone, save for one breathing heavily and rolling on the ground, likely injured about 20 foot away.

He opened his eyes slowly, and saw the hunched up figure of white fur in the distance through his bloody, stained eyes. He coughed up suddenly, his blood spilling on the floor.

The human looked up in apprehension to see if the wolf had heard. The same sounds continued. He was safe.

Tugging his arm free though, he realised that what had been pinning him down was the rib cage of another human, their body rolled onto the floor at his mistake, dripping a puddle of still warm blood over the floor.

"Ah!"

He couldn't hold back his startled gasp. And then there was silence.

The boy dared to look back, squinting helplessly to see a small face appear in the fog of white fluff, and a strange mammal like body crawling towards him in a dog like way, somehow the unknown mystery of a creature being more terrifying and concerning than the real dog.

But that meant it couldn't stop his magic.

His freed hand reached into the blood hastily, scrawling out a symbol as slow growling filled his ears. More blood was spilling from his head every second, making it harder to see.

He wiped his eyes, the blood smearing on his eyes to see the low and cautious gestures of a crawling wolf boy staring him in the face with cold, violent eyes.

Breathing became suddenly more difficult, staring into those endless flame like eyes made him feel so unsure of himself.

But the wolf boy stopped his growling and his gaze softened, he tilted his head almost curiously, allowing the hunter just enough breath to croak out, "Teleport... to hospital"

Somehow, the wolf boy thought of the sound as offensive, as his body suddenly jerked back and he growled ferociously with his jaw parted almost as if he were shouting.

He pounced just a moment off and ended up landing confused in a puddle of blood.

The hunter hit the hospital bed in the centre of the village hard, the nurse around him jumping back and plunging into chaos. But his eyes remained frozen ahead of him, the explosive orange eyes and uncouth fair hair of the feral boy emblazoned into his mind.

Strangely, a name surfaced in his mind that seemed to suit the boy.

 _"...Katsuki..?"_

 _To be continued..._

* * *

 _ **I'm hoping for this to have a mix of many different genres, so this first being based mainly on action and suspense is just build up for the main story and could perhaps be considered a prologue so it doesn't quite represent the story as a whole.**_

 _ **Anyway, please review and rate and tell me what you thought! Thanks for reading this far :D**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

A single wolf made a jump to catch the falling boy mid air, and clamped it's teeth down on his vertically thrown blade instead. Izuku had hurled it so hard it had hopefully collided his throat before he was even near to Izuku and likely sliced the skin bloody. If reactions were anything to go on, he had been successful as the wolf whimpered out and choked into silence, falling to the ground on it's back. Though, he was hardly in a place to watch with the way the world was spinning around him making him sick. The human thumped down not a second later.

As his back collided with the hard solid slam of the surface, the water from the passing river that crossed through the village splashed up around his weight and plummeted him deeper into it's confines; it caught him welcomingly, with no hidden rocks or weeds to tangle him up and pull him down. He was glad he had calculated his location correctly, because if he had fallen just a little more to the left, he would have likely ended up flat on the dirt banks with his neck broken.

Looking up in the distorted world of the clear water stream, he saw four furry faces looking down at him. For some reason, they would poke at the water with their paws, but wouldn't jump in.

Izuku was running out of air, his blood was flowing along the stream in a tiny trail of pink. Not to mention the traces of water inside his nasal and throat making him want to cough. He held his breath, his eyes red and teary with the strain, knowing that it would be the death of him if he did cough. He just had to wait for them to pass.

But the wolves were still there looking down on him.

His lungs hurt, but not nearly as much as his muscles did, flaying to keep him up but not so far as to penetrate the surface.  
Think. Think. Think.

Staying in here wasn't settling a thing, but with so many slashing claws and teeth awating him up above, he swam backwards whilst diagonally aiming for the top as fast as he could.

He shot up, weaponless and dripping in wet blindness as the wolves rained into howls at the sight of him, surrounding him before he could even reach dry land.

He gasped out aghast, peeling the hair out of his eyes, the slightest of his movements earning a snap of teeth in his direction.

There was a large rock on the side of the river that could probably crush the head of a wolf, but this wasn't some fantasy in Izuku's mind where he had the strength or magic to move it.

Izuku let the last slice in his direction reach him and cut through the flesh of his hand like it was made of butter. He screamed loudly, unable to comprehend such a pain, but gasping through it reached forward with his free hand grasping the fur with all his strength as he cried out and pulled the wolf in with him.

It howled, but caught it's composure in the water quickly, barely fitting in the narrow stream, it struggled to get up, and so it clawed into his legs in panic.

Izuku reached up for the large rock, looking as though he was trying to hoist himself out, he hoped a wolf would push it for him.

Instead, he revealed that the wolves weren't as cunning as he thought, and chose instinctively to aim for his throat instead. Izuku narrowly avoided a bite into his skull only by swerving deeper into the claws embedded in his thigh, gasping loudly and shakily at the water that chilled his lungs, and gripping the rock for real to hoist himself out.

Much to his surprise and dismay, with his whole body leaning on it, he was in fact strong enough to move it. It slipped into the water, colliding with his stomach so hard he nearly threw up. He was sure his organs were being shoved backwards from the impact, but by some miracle, it had hit the giant wolf too.

Slowly, the pain of claws ripping through him increased and then stopped, followed by a new empty soreness.

Izuku looked down, his vision blue and blurry from blood loss and pain. He barely noticed that the wolves had stopped growling and retracted whimpering. He reached down to his stomach and pulled back his hand, to find that even in this darkness, the water was visibly blood red.

Suddenly a force water knocked him into the banks hard. He coughed up, bloody water pouring into his mouth and his nose, crawling up onto the mud to find the wolves from before had dived into the cramped water to save the sinking body of the wolf he had accidentally hit.

The green head's eyes widened, nearly half a dozen flattened, fearful ears turned towards or away from him.

He scrambled away, his knees weak with motion sickness, one hand on his stomach where he was bleeding profusely down his leg.

"Save your friends and go! Get out of this village and never come back! Never! Come back and I-" He stopped to cough, getting further and further away as the wild wolves whimpered like dogs "-I won't be as kind."

Izuku kept looking backwards in frightened glances as he put more and more distance between them, dragging his mauled leg in the mud, painfully aware of the scented trail he was leading from them to him in a path towards- he collided with something violently, landing down with an agonised groan onto the floor.

His breathe hitched in however, silencing his pain at the ominous growling that filled his ears. He jerked back, eyes landing on the feral boy who was standing upright like a human _. The one who had nearly torn his face off with his bare, human teeth._

Blood was dripping down his openly snarling mouth into his teeth from the slash of the knife that Izuku had lost to another wolf's throat.

He trembled, gasping again and crawling backwards in the dirt afraid.

Izuku didn't receive so much as a glance in his direction. The wolf boy jumped over him, catching himself with his surprisingly strong lean arms and bounding off towards the other wolves.

His nerves sank, gasping and breathing heavily at having survived.

He jolted up, running several feet away until the wolves were barely visible before shouting, "Go! Go and NEVER COME BACK!"

With the sky spinning above him and his limbs painfully lacking the blood to keep going, Izuku stumbled backwards into a tree and his skull collided with the hard floor of the mini-forest, staring up ahead and blinking as more tears gathered in his eyes.

From the moment he had jumped, he had given up on trying to survive. Despite this, his inability to go on was as tragic as it was terrifying. He cried softly into the air, wondering if he would die of blood loss or being mauled to death, or maybe eaten completely?

One moment he was breathing hard, the next his sweat was cold. One moment the moon was cloudy, the next it was clear, and he was staring up into the insides of his own eyelids, the terrifying realisation that he was blacking out creeping into his bones.

Thoughts of his mother crossed his mind, of how she would react to the news, how she would go on living without him? If she would be better off having to no longer pay the extra taxes due to his existence?

The pain was bad. But he smiled softly to himself. Maybe this would be better, maybe on the other side his guardian angel of an imaginary friend might even be there to welcome him.

Izuku's eyes opened. He gazed up at the glowing full moon silently, his breath in his throat, his sobs having stopped silently. Even the cold tears on his face seemed to halt in falling.

With his last amount of strength, Izuku dug his nails into the dirt, the muscles in his torn stomach and bloody legs straining as he pushed himself diagonally into a sitting position. He looked forward, a wave of dizziness making him swerve only to catch himself at the last moment. His chin the only thing able to move, as eyes squinted ahead, the blur of wolves merged into one big silverish fire of light in the distance.

Then finally, his gaze found the healthy rose skin of the human boy, crouching on the head of a comparatively huge wolf, eyes shut, and lips moving as if whimpering.

Izuku's body gave an internal flip.

 _"K-Kacchan.?"_

* * *

Izuku woke up with a start. Despite this, he found his physical body hadn't moved at all.

"Izuku..?"

Before the boy knew it, his mother had reached up from where she had been crying into his lap and hugged him tightly. He stared at her in an uncertain gaze.

"Mama?"

"Yes baby!" She sobbed loudly, squeezing even tighter. He wasn't sure why, but he started to smile, returning her embrace warmly.

"It's okay... I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the farm."

As expected, she hugged him even tighter and mumbled incoherently into his arm.

"You...I'm never letting you go to the farm at night again.."

Izuku laughed, patting her head as his gaze turned towards the hospital window and the gentle sun streaming in.

"Again..so I really survived that.."

* * *

"Ah, home sweet home.." Izuku muttered as his mother clicked the door open and rushed to his side, lighting all the candles at once with a quick flash of her magic. Immediately, the narrow corridor became more welcoming, he sighed happily, his mother helping him to limp forward with his casted leg and bandaged stomach.

The village specialist had healed him, and Gran Torino had even come by to give him a healing ointment from his shop as a gift. A girl named Ochako had brought him flowers while he was sleeping, but other than that, the other villagers ignored him, even saying how suspicious it was that he of all people were to survive.

Thankfully, one of the hunters had survived to defend his name.

That boy had become the hero of the village; the one in the rumours who fought them away and caused all the spilled wolf blood around the river. Many of them thought that if Izuku hadn't been there, the others wouldn't have been killed.

He didn't correct them.

Besides, a part of him thought that they were right. If he hadn't made the first careless move, the others wouldn't have been attacked.

Izuku had visited the esteemed hero back at the hospital. He was in far worse condition that Izuku, and had undergone surgery, hooked up to a machine that he probably wouldn't be freed from for several months at least.

At first, walking in all he had said was hi. Izuku couldn't deny that he was afraid. Even after facing murderous beasts and come out of it in better off than him, Izuku couldn't unsee the boy's wicked expression as he slammed him into the floor with the bottom of his shoe.

Yes, he had pushed him back to defend him in the end. Yes, he was probably the one who sent the villagers to save him before he died on the forest floor. Yes, he was likely only alive because of his kindness.

But as Izuku finally looked up to meet the boy's saddened eyes, his nerves collapsed completely. He tumbled forward in a bow, his hands in tight fists at his sides.

"I-I'm so s-sorry!" He cried, already with tears streaming down his face.

"Woah, what are crying so much about cry baby?" He jeered, though his voice was neither soft nor aggressive.

"I.." He hiccuped loudly, not able to raise his head,"I-If I hadn't been t-there you guys c-could have stood a c-chance..! They're dead because of me!"

"Now who the hell told you that!?" The voice snapped, this time sounding angry for real.

Izuku looked up drearily, "Everyone. Every villager."

"Were they there?! Do they have any idea what happened there!?"

He demanded, sitting up fully. Izuku only shook his head dolefully.

"Exactly. Look. I don't like you quirkless. You're a wimp and a coward and a goddamn crybaby just begging to be picked on, but for some reason, you stood a better chance against those wolves than all three of us put together. Maybe it's 'cause you're smart or maybe you've been practicing with all those swords in your shop illegally-"

Izuku's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

"Whatever it was!" He snapped loudly, startling Izuku's words away, "If it weren't for you, I would be dead. Half of the village probably would be too, so stop crying and accept my compliments like a man. You tell me what really happened and I'll make sure everyone knows it."

Izuku shook his head vehemently, blurring out every excuse he could only to find his lips sewn shut with a magic spell.

He stared ahead panicked, tears drying in the shock until his lips were able to part once again.

"Tell me!"

Izuku told him everything, still crying and sobbing between his words.

"I see, so you saw him too huh?"

"W-Who?"

"Katsuki."

Katsuki. Kacchan. The feral boy.

Izuku had jumped up onto his feet in seconds. "You know him too?"

"Of course I do you idiot! He was the leader of are group don't you remember? He... he was like a best friend to me. I really looked up to him you know."

"I... I barely remember him. Other than him picking on me and being in charge."

To his surprise, the malicious bully didn't respond for several moments his eyes seeming even sadder than Izuku's.  
"To think Katsuki would grow into that... murderous wild animal."

He clenched his fists around his sheets, only to wince in pain and slowly settle back down.

Izuku was watching him closely. "How though? I don't understand how a villager could end up like that? Do you know what happened to him?"

"All I remember Katsuki not coming to play for a really long time, and my Mom was always in their house next door, but whenever I went in he wasn't there. It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth, and whenever I asked where he was or when he would be back, they would brush me off and tell me to leave the room, or help my dad with something. They never answered. Do you remember?"

Izuku flushed, rubbing his head nervously under the spotlight. "Well, until know I thought Katsuki was someone imaginary."

Back in his home, Izuku felt the entire conversation had been awkward and didn't leave him with many answers. The boy known as Katsuki was a mystery to him. If the others were alive, maybe they could have added things the picture to.

"Mom?" He called. She appeared at the door in her apron, smiling at him softly with two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands.

"Ah, that looks good."

She smiled and thanked him. "If there's anything you want just ask me, I know your legs are sore so if you want your bunny or a story book I can run up and get it for you, okay?"

Izuku smiled gratefully at her obsessive need to care for her only child.

"A-actually there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Hm? Go ahead." She took a seat in the rocking chair beside his and used her magic quirk to pull the biscuit tin down from the shelf into her hands, taking out a cookie to munch on before tilting it in his direction.

Izuku politely declined, closing his eyes to imagine the vivid orange eyes and furrowed brow of the fluffy haired wolf boy as a child in their village, but as always, the only image he could conjure up had the most important facial details blurred out severely, much like the rest of his memories. He sighed deeply before asking: "Do you remember a boy my age called Katsuki?"

The older Midoriya's eyes widened, jumping in shock as she heard the large tin crash into the floor, and all of its content tumble out.

His Mom was staring at him fearfully.

"Are you okay!?" He panicked, leaning out of his chair to salvage the biscuits with one hand, holding her shoulder with the other.

She shook her head, not as if to say no, but as if to shake away a feeling of disturbance lingering on her clothes.

"You remember Bakugo-kun?"

Izuku's mind reeled backwards. Katsuki Bakugo. The image of a tiny boy with a grin nearly too big for his face and such a large presense Izuku always left like he was looking up to him, even at times were he was looking down on him after he had slipped from a rock and plummeted into the shallow stream outside of the village they would sneak out to for thrills.

It was a stream that shared the same water as the river where he had spilled the blood of the wolves who were likely Katsuki's family now. Either way, he had finally built the picture he'd been trying to piece together for years, all thanks to the words of his mother.

He knew that letting her speak would be beneficial to him, and despite his concern for his only known blood relative, his body was nearly shaking trying to contain his excitement as he smiled widely.

"Yeah. I'd forgotten about him until his name came up recently."

"I see."

Izuku frowned. It wasn't at all difficult to see her hesitance about speaking up any more stories. Judging by the effect on her it was understandable, even he wanted to wait for her to calm down a bit before telling her about Kacchan being with the wolves.

"C-can you tell me a bit more about him please. I can barely remember as it is." He laughed nervously, almost impaired by how large his fear of her refusing was.

"Do you really want me to? When you stopped talking about him, I thought it was for the best that you didn't remember."

"What? Really? Please tell me Mom, it's important."

She bit her lip sadly, her eyes downcast, clenching the stitching work in her lap. "I guess you have a right to know. I'm sure you remember this, but Katsuki was one of the first in your year to develop his magic. Not just any magic, he had already manifested his quirk, in fact he was the youngest person ever to do that in our village."

Like a picture being painted into colour by the hands of an artist, Izuku felt like he was remembering more and more, getting to closer to understanding the mystery of Katsuki Bakugo with every memory.

"The thing is, being that prodigious, there wasn't a person in the village who didn't know who Katsuki-kun was. Eventually, people from out of the village started to know this too. Everyone wanted their children to be friends with him in hopes of his talent brushing off on them. Myself included. Before we knew it, Katsuki-kun had a group of children admiring him at all times, and that's when you met him. Now, this is where it gets... well, I don't want to scare you. Are you still sure you want me to tell you?"

She met his gaze uncertainly. He nodded vehemently. How bad could it be?

"Like most of the other boys your age, after spending time with Katsuki-kun, you started to show an increase in your ability to wield magic."

"What do you mean magic...are you talking about me specifically? That's impossible!?"

"But it's the truth. You used to cast little illusions of heroes in boxes for the other children to watch like theatre. I was so proud of my little Izuku, I was sure that you would be the next prodigy. But before you could fully grow, something happened. When the so called talent spotters came to our village in search of Katsuki-kun, our quiet village started to become less calm. I still remember how Bakugo's mother used to argue with them, she could yell so loudly the whole village could hear her, and they just wouldn't go away. Everyone was hoping they would leave, because although we all wanted the best of opportunities for him, nobody wanted Katsuki to be taken away from his family to serve the king. Then, one evening Katsuki-kun drifted out of the house, not wanting to hear the fighting..."

Suddenly something triggered in Izuku's memory, and the endearing voice of a child filled his ears over his mother's words _. "Don't worry Izuku, she shouts like this all the time. What kind of hero hides from his friend's mother! Man up!"_ He was punched on the shoulder by tiny hands that back then, were painfully bigger than his. " _She's not scary when you get used to her. Come on. By the time we get back let's hope she's shut up."_

There was something eerie in the voice, like it was the whispers of a ghost in his ear coming to haunt him. In his memories, several images flashed over his mind as his mother spoke on in what felt like a distant world. His mind felt out of body as the eeriness was made clear by her next few words.

"...And that was the last time we ever saw Katsuki-kun. We asked everyone in the village but nobody had an answer. The sun went down without him returning and the entire village went out on a hunt to find him. I remember how you were clinging to me in the cold, and wouldn't let go of my hand."

Izuku remembered it too. It was dark, it was freezing and everyone had lit torches or magic flames in their hands to guide them. His mother's hands were soft and incredibly warm. But that night as they walked over the grassy hills and into the dry wooden maze of the endless forest, Izuku's miniature body burned with something other than exhaust or desperation. There was a strong sense of fear.

With his knew found memories, putting two and two together was easy; he had been with Katsuki the day of his disappearance. Yet here he was somehow beside his mother, with every memory between nonexistent. He had left with him, so why hadn't he returned with him? What had happened to him during that time that his mind so keenly forbid him from remembering?

Moreover, he was guilt ridden as to why his mother had no knowledge of that fact that he had seen Kacchan last. Where did he go, and why didn't Izuku tell anyone?

"Eventually morning came around, and he was still nowhere to be seen. Katsuki's parents questioned the _'talent spotters_ ' eagerly, and for at least a month, every night a group of adults would go out searching deep in the forest for the missing boy, but he was never found. Some thought the talent spotters had lied and kidnapped him, others thought he was dead. After not long, his parents became depressed and started to hate this village. His mother locked herself away, and you were in a similar state, though it was more mental than physical. You didn't speak for months." Her voice broke wearily at the memories, he leaned towards her instantly in a tight embrace.

"I...I was so terrified, and your father had just left so I was all on my own. I thought to myself every day, what if it had been you, what if you were next, what if they came back for you, or if you never spoke again..?"

"It's alright Mom, I'm here." He squeezed her hand tightly, to which she responded with vigour, holding onto him tightly as if he might slip away.

"I'm right here." He repeated, his voice soft with concern and empathy. Her whole body shook beneath him, reminded him of how fragile his mother was, and flooding him with guilt at making her relive such terrors.

"I-I don't know what I'd do without you Izuku." He thought back to several nights ago, how he had been really considering letting himself die there. He realised how selfish that was.

She took a sharp breath in and continued, "Katsuki was gone, and whenever someone mentioned his name, you would scream. No words, not tears, just a long scream without even fear in your eyes. The other villages scolded you, thinking you want attention and I snapped right back at them, believe me! Sometimes you would pass out afterwards, and I started to think you were crazy, though no counsellor could find a problem. We decided to stop mentioning him around you, to act like he had never existed, and sure enough, after a year when both of his parents had moved away to the other side of the island, you spoke again."

Her eyes lit up with happiness like a green flame that had been lightened, she clenched his hand tightly before releasing him and ruffled his hair instead, picking up her drink and taking a long sip.

"It was slow, and I wasn't there to see the first word myself, but at school you started to speak up again in class. You started to banter away about All Might and tell stories in class and eventually you were speaking again. We decided not to push you with magic, so while the others continued their private progressions in their free time with their parents and friends, we waited for you to turn seven where magic studies became a part of your education at the school. And then... we found out you were unable to use magic. The ability was completely gone, no matter how hard any of us tried, and how many trips we took to the mountains for meditation, you couldn't manifest a single speck of light."

Izuku... couldn't have been further from sadness. So he had lost the ability to wield magic, at first he had thought he was biologically incapable. Knowing that it was likely psychological, and therefore reversible if he found out what triggered it, he was filled with a new found sense of hope.

He could end his discrimination as an outcast - he could use magic!

"But there's nothing wrong with that!" His mother's voice took a turn for loud, turning to face him sharply. "My little boy was back to speaking and that made me the happiest mother in the world. I couldn't care less about magic, it's you that's important and I love you and treasure you all the same."

She kissed him on the cheek roughly and suddenly stood up, knocking his smile off his face into an uncertain look of surprise as she threw a blanket over him and handed him his hot mug of chocolate and cast a spell that released soft hums of melodious magic.

"You're my son Izuku. And you're the best son in the world. Never forget that," She declared. "Now I'm going to bake you a cake to celebrate your return safely."

Izuku was dumbfounded as he sat in his seat, broken leg and all.

He may have just returned from danger barely with his life. He may have promised he was here for his mother, and agreed that he was the best son in the world, but the temptation of being normal urged him towards it magnetically.

He could wield magic. He could be gifted, and prove all the doubters wrong. He could pursue adventure, fulfil his dreams and all he had to do was find out what had happened to him that day where he lost his magic.

To find that out, there was one other boy in the world who knew what happened and he was eager to hunt him down and find out.

Katsuki Bakugo. They can't have run into each other out of coincidence. It was time to bring him home.

* * *

 ** _After this chapter, the real story begins now that all the relevant background information has been introduced._**

 ** _If this was an enjoyable chapter please review! Suggestions for this story are always welcomed as well, that's the good thing about fanfics, you can talk to the authors and hopefully get what you're looking for : D_**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

As grateful as Izuku tried to be that he'd returned to the safety of a domesticated life, from he moment he sat down behind the counter of his weapons shop, it became indisputable that something inside of him had curled up and died.

His haven of peace, equality and dreams suddenly felt alien and anxious to him.

His hands tapped on the desk restlessly, waiting for the usual excitement to reach him. He stared up at his great display of weapons longingly, but even though the polished metals still gleamed just as brightly, he was painstakingly aware that they were in fact dead, lifeless displays of unused weapons with no stories behind them, and at this rate, they never would have a story to tell.

The first customer was greeted by him with great zeal; to put it simply, Izuku chatted his ear off asking questions about the usage of the armour he was selling him and if he fought very often.

This man was an outsider, a travelling adventurer like one of the many their village frequently offered refuge to. He claimed to be on the hunt to view and examine _wild, dangerous_ animals, but other than that the man was very curt. Izuku was enthralled nonetheless, amazed at such a life without restraining borders and expectations of others holding him back.

As the door to his shop closed, leaving him alone, for the first time in his life, he came to realise that sitting here wasting his days away selling things to people who held no appreciation for his work made this huge enclosed space feel incredibly dismal. With great acquiescence, he came to accept the past criticisms of customers; it was dark in here, it was cluttered, it was depressing.

But Izuku was stuck here. His mother barely let him out until the cast on his leg was removed, returning to him the right to walk.

First thing first, he visited the farm, adding flowers onto the vast collection gathered as the memorial outside where he had seen his ex-classmates die bloody, horrific deaths.

He stood on the fence to stare up idly at the empty darkness of the forest, where the eerie white silhouettes had first been spotted by the eyes of a boy who had trained his whole life to be a fighter only to end up dead within the jaws of a beast.

Since then, nothing near the excitement had occurred.

He was grateful for his happiness though, it wasn't like he wanted them to come back! He had told them to never return and ended up lucky that they'd somehow obliged, it wasn't like he wanted them to seek revenge on him or come back to turn the rest of the villagers into their meals.

 _But... maybe deep down he did wish for their return?_

He struck his own fist into his jaw angrily. No. That wasn't it. It was the adventure he wanted: the thrill of his life on the line, the rush of not knowing what would happen next, having to think fast, having a chance to do something - _anything_ useful for once like all the others his age got to experience, it was the chance at being a hero.

Izuku jumped off the fence and landed on his newly renewed legs. It had been about three weeks of nonstop physio-therapy, recovery enhancers and strongly scented healing ointments.

Despite this, Katsuki hadn't been seen at all.

He landed with perfect form and perfect balance, his eyes hard with determination as he settled his plan out in his mind resolutely.

* * *

"Mom." she turned to face his smiling. "I'm thinking of leaving for a while."

"But you just returned, and it's pretty late too. I know you must be eager to stretch your legs, but it can wait until the sun comes up. Cake?"

Only now did he notice the tray of hamster sized, fluffy blueberry muffins in her oven mitten covered hands. The teen accepted one hesitantly and watched as she placed three on a plate for herself.

"I know, but that's not what I meant... hey, mama, didn't your doctor say you should stop eating so many sweets before bed?"

"Oh!" She nearly dropped the tray in surprise, but he caught it, only to gasp at the immediate stinging burn on his bare hands. "You're right! Oh honey are you okay?"

"Yea-I'm fine." Her son wheezed, trying to be a man about hiding his hands behind his back like a kid who had just messily eaten some prohibited chocolates. This wasn't going as he had planned.

"Are you sure, I'm so sorry, you're red!" She pulled his hands out from behind him and instantly starting singing spells to lessen the wound, kissing his palms better, dabbing gently on his skin and even calling him a "A good strong big-boy for managing the pain."

Whatever masculine strength he had been feeling before out in the bitter dark at night was dissolving away with every second he spent cooped up with his mother in the nurturing warmth of her indoor heating and fluffed carpets.

"You can have an extra muffin to make up for it, oh I'm so sorry, what kind of a mother am I, you can have all of them!"

"Mom..." He groaned, closing his eyes.

"What's wrong baby? Aren't you feeling well?"

"Mom, I'm not a baby anymore, I'm fifteen."

Izuku had to say it. He had never once stood up to her ( he had never once thought there was a need to ) but today the day had come. He removed her touch from his forehead and held her hands tightly in his palms, looking into her eyes as he spoke. Crushingly, his words didn't seem to make any sense to her at all.

"Of course you are, you'll always be my baby."

 _This was infuriatingly frustrating._

"Mom. When I said I wanted to leave the house, I meant it." Her smile had collapsed so quickly it hurled a slap of guilt in his direction. Mossy eyes looked up at his frantically, her hands taking over in doing the squeezing as if he might vanish before her very eyes.

"Why are you saying this suddenly Izuku? Is it because of what I told you the other day about your _magic?_ You know you don't need it right, you know you're perfect? Here,"

She placed a clump of freshly baked muffin into his mouth before he could speak, nervously nibbling at the other end of it herself as if having completely forgotten about their conversation a few moments ago.

Izuku couldn't spend the rest of life here being hand fed by his mother.

"No, that's not it." He sounded solemn. But maybe that was just the food in his mouth. How was he regretting it before he had even taken the first step towards it?

"Then what is it? Is it a girl, do you want to move into your own place with her? I-Is she pregnant? You can always being her here."

"Mom stop!" He pulled away from her hands, blushing furiously, "There's no girl mom, I just... I want to leave the village for a while and explore the rest of the island, I know there's more to life then just the same old people and the same places since I was a child. Please, I need this."

Her eyes were starting to water. He hadn't meant to yank quite so hard, but he'd ended up tugging her delicate emotions far into the wrong direction.

"You mean... _to leave the village?_ Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Especially for someone who's magicless like you, there are creatures out there Izuku, and people too, bad people."

"Yes Mom, I know. I'm quirkless, but that doesn't mean I'm useless."

"No, I never said that, but it means you're vulnerable! Yes, some people speculated that Bakugo-kun didn't get kidnapped, but ran away, but you're not like that my baby, you're weak Izuku! You'll be targeted and picked on by people far worse than any bully in he village..! Ever since your father left, you're all that I've had Izuku!" Her breath hitched, she was sobbing uncontrollably. "Y-You can't leave, I couldn't bare it if you were to get hurt!"

He understood how she must have been feeling. But she had messed up. The wrong phrase from her, and a harsh truth had come tumbling out, leaving him to feel like the image his mother had of himself that kept him living had died. No, had never existed out of his mind in the first place.

She'd known about the bullying. Of course she would. How many times could one boy trip and fall on his face when he was perfectly unclumsy around her? How many times could he say he was at Gran Torino's for games when the man was clearly famous for his healing potions? The bullies weren't even afraid of her. They probably said bad things about him to her face, and of course she couldn't dare pick a fight with them when their parents were likely even more discriminative towards him. Towards her too, after all, she had birthed him.

He bit his lip, unable to be angry with her and curled his arms around her hair.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I know you just want the best for me but I can't stay."

He spoke softly, his voice low and calming, feeling like their roles had reversed and he was the parent for once.

"No. I won't let you." He froze, his hands going still around her hair.

"W-what..?"

"I can't let the person I care about most in this world run to his death. You're not going Izuku, I-I'll ask the hunters to let you tag along with them sometime, I'll take you on walks around the forest together outside of the village. T-This summer we can even go on vacation to the coast if you'd like that, as long as you stay here with me."

"Mom...I'm sorry. I won't take no for an answer."

His voice trembled, knowing that in barely any time he would be crying too if he didn't put his foot down.

"I don't get it!" She clenched his shirt in her firsts hard, "Why are you so desperate to leave, what aren't you telling me?"

Her tearful eyes were too much for his emotions to handle, Izuku faltered and had to grip the kitchen counter hard so he wouldn't fall over and wail like a child. He had beads of tears in the corner of both of his eyes as he spoke.

"It's Katsuki-"

"I knew it." She gasped, her guilt tumbling out like a waterfall.

"No, it's not what you think. The truth is, Katsuki's not dead, but he's...he's not really himself either."

"W-what are you talking about? He w-went missing years ago baby, they know he's most likely gone."

"But I found him." She gaped up at him hard. "I found him and then I lost him all over again." His voice was full of pain,

"Mom, Katsuki was with the wolves that night, he was feral and he was growling and howling and he didn't recognise me at all, he didn't even act like he knew he was a human, but the important thing is, he's alive. Alive and close. I-I have to f-find him and bring him back to himself Mom, I can't not do this, I have to. Even if it means I get hurt in the process."

Izuku's mother didn't release him for so long, but she didn't object either.

They stood embracing, Izuku wiping his eyes dry and looking down at her, unable to tell whether she was ready to agree to letting him go, or contemplating a way to keep him here. Forever.

Her voice spoke up after a long time, and her hands closed around him even tighter as she did, looking up at him with her eyes red at the sides, but no longer unable to stop sobbing.

"Okay. I'll let you go. I'll let you be free and have your fun, because I don't want you to hate me-"

"Mom, I could never hate you."

"It's okay." She silenced him, starting when he had barely finished. "Just promise me that you'll be safe. Promise me that you'll avoid any danger and protect your life at all costs, promise me that you'll stay safe," the woman repeated insistently.

But that wasn't a promise he could make. His mouth hung open. She knew he couldn't make that promise, well the usual her did, but there was weakness in the eyes of the middle-aged woman before him now; a weakness that made her unfamiliar as a person and look almost deluded.

He bit his lip, the guilt burning in his stomach again as he spoke. "I promise I'll _try_ to keep myself safe."

Her body turned soft, as if she had fulfilled her purpose in life, she buried her head in his chest. "Thank you, Izuku."

She had said his name this time; not baby, not son, not honey or sweety. She had said his name.

* * *

Izuku was doing it. He was finally leaving home to pursue a life better than the one he had now. He took a deep breath before taking the first exhilarating step out of his house, heavy bag on his shoulders, hard shoes on his feet, chiselled sword in his belt and a sharp knife in his pocket, all completely legal now that he was no longer going to be a resident of the village.

He reached the end of his road in no time, inhaling yet again. It didn't feel any different other than the fact that the sky was bluer and the air sweeter that any time he had emerged from his house since his entire 15 years of living here.

It suddenly that this might be the last time he ever stood on this path. "Izuku look ou-"

His mother's warning from several steps back didn't reach him in time as his toe caught a rock and his body flipped forwards hard.

There was the sound of a loud, painstaken gasp as his mother looked away. "I-I'm okay!" He called, trying to stand back up on his feet.

It was then that he realised he had hit something solid other than the floor. But whatever it was, it was somehow invisible. His hands searched out ahead of him, swimming in the air as though in a lake.

"Huh?"

Izuku was faced to face with the curvy chest below the brown hooded cloak that revealed a pair of cutely smiling brown eyes poking out from under a large burgandy scarf.

"Ah-Uh-Oh-Ochako!"

"Hey," She laughed, putting her hand on his forehead and effortlessly turning him around so he could put his feet on the floor as she released her quirk.

"Ahh, you s-saved me there." He grinned, blushing despite having known her for his whole life, there were certain parts of her that were almost brand new to him, as he had just seen. Besides, they rarely ever saw each other now that he stopped going to school.

"Hey Miss Midoriya!" She waved to his mother, who was leaning on the door as though near a heart attack.

"Oh Urararaka-san, please take good care of him."

"Heh?" It was only then that she noticed the obvious luggage on the boys back, which had accidentally tumbled along with him and spilled its contents onto the floor.

"Where are you going Izuku? You have a lot in here. Is it a trip?"

"Y-yeah, sort of. I'm going on a quest." They both started to reassemble what had spilt from his bag.

"A quest!?" The brunette gleamed, clenching her fists beside her and startling up so suddenly her hood fell back off her head.

"Yeah."

"Where to? Oh this is gonna be so fun! I'd love to join you, so that's what your Mom meant, THANKS FOR INVITING ME!"

She called proudly, grabbing Izuku's arm and running off, waving at the green haired women who was crying into her handkerchief as she grinned contently and waved back. Izuku cringed at the girl's enthusiastic strength, barely following after her, and catching up only after she halted to a stop at the nearest patch of trees to glance at him.

"So where are we going?"

"Ur-"

"Ochako." She corrected him.

"Ochako-san, I appreciate the help, but I don't think you should tag along with me."

"Huh? How come, is it going to be dangerous?"

"Yes."

"Then that's all the more reason that I should come, as if I could ever let you do something like that on your own. I care about you to much Izuku, you're like the brother to me I never had."

Izuku's emotions turned him into goo, a slow and soft mix of pain, weakness and greatfulness making him speak out wryly in hopes of hiding his bitterness.

"Thank you but, this Quest isn't something definite. I could be gone for two days, or I could be gone for two decades. I don't know when I'll be back, but I can't keep you away from your family for what might possibly be such a long time."

"Oh...trust me, they won't mind at all."

Suddenly, he felt selfish for dismissing asking about her for rambling about his own issues. When a bright girl like Ochako made an expression like that, he knew that something must truly be wrong.

 _"Hey, what's the matter?"_

Izuku had opened his mouth, but the words hadn't come out, instead, he had stared at her blazing smile as she beat him to it and spoke up so gleefully he questioned if he hadn't just imagined the whole thing. "Likewise, you can't keep me away from you for such a long time. What happens if I miss you? If I come I can see you every day."

"Ochako..."

"Do you want to get lunch? I'm starving, we can talk about it there."

Green eyes stared down ahead at the pretty girl in concern, he glanced back down at the many houses below and winced. "You mean at the cafe..?"

"Yeah. Come, it'll be fun."

Izuku let her take his hand and lead her away, deeper into the village that hated him and back down the path away from his freedom because his only friend in the world was in pain and that was far more important than any quest.

* * *

"Mmm! This is delicious."

After dining on food and sipping their lemonades, Ochako had treated herself to a sweet sundae of strawberries and ice cream topped with whipped cream.

In spite of all his gentle nods in that direction, the girl hadn't spoken a single word of the darkness she had shown to him earlier that day.

"I think I should get going Ochako. I'll pay for your dessert for you."

"Hold it right there! You're not going anywhere without me, and I'm poor, but you're even worse quirkless," She joked, poking her tongue out at him, "So the only one you're paying for is yourself. Didn't you think I'd notice you were watching your price whilst choosing food?"

He winced under her watchful gaze, as she smiled on innocently.

"Ochakooo." He whined, as if he was a child being tormented again.

"Izuuukuu." She returned beating him at his own game.

He turned back to her, placing his hand over hers with his face serene and serious. "I-Izuku?" She repeated, starting to look flustered.

"Ochako, the truth is, I know you often have problems with your parents, and because of that I don't want them thinking the quirkless monster from a few doors away has kidnapped their _precious, kind, beautiful, loving_ daughter." He spoke lowly, lifting her chin up to look into her shaking coca-cola eyes.

"And that's why I have to leave you here to make amends with them."

In the blink of an eye, Ochako found her hand and face cold of his touch, and instead a pair of hard round silver coins in her palm that just so happened to some up the both of their costs. Her palm swallowed the coin in an angry clench, noticing that Izuku was at the door already, prepared to run for his life.

"O-Oh no you don't!"

Izuku gasped as a warping gate appeared before him just outside the shop. He choked loudly and skidded to a gradual stop, but fell into it at the end anyway and found himself back on the table face to face with a frowning pair of chubby cheeks and eyes that were absolutely not amused.

He laughed nervously, looking up at his friend only to have his ear grabbed anhold of. "Honestly." She tutted, shaking her head.

"You thought you could run away from me. When I told you I was coming with you, I meant it. You won't shake me off that easily."

"But Ochako, you don't even know where you're going!"

"I don't care, you'll be with me and I can trust you."

"Not to mention you're clearly running away from some issue that I don't know of. I can't have helping you on my conscious when you could have committed some sort of crime."

Ochako's grip faltered, her throat made a sort of deflated sqeaking noise as she sank back into her seat. Izuku was slumped down on the table like some sort of ironed piece of clothing, looking up at her intently.

"Then clearly we need to talk."

He bit his lip. "Y-You go first."

"Fine." She suddenly glanced down, and her sad expression slipped back onto her face like the mask of a whole new person. She was nearly unrecognisable without her gorgeous smile.

"I... my parents are going through another rough time. Sure, Mom's got her job as a nurse, and Dad writes a column for the paper, but ever since he hurt his back and had to quit going out on the hunting team, it's..."

He could see her hesitance all over her face. "It's been hard to feed all of us. I didn't tell anyone, but a few weeks ago I heard them arguing about which of them would skip their next meal so they could feed me. Daddy wanted Mom to eat because of the stress of having to work on the boy with the wolf injuries recently, but he had apparently been skipping them the w-whole week."

"I-I hate being a burden to them like this and of course I wanted to help them. But last night, when they said that it was about time I went to look for a job of my own, I couldn't handle it. I hated the fact that I was losing out on my childhood! I'd have to work at 15, when all the other girls my age don't have to until they're 18 or married. I know it must sound selfish and bratty to you, you've been working since you were 12, so you know what a real struggle is, you're so strong Izuku I can't stand to compare myself to you. That's why I came over to see you, because you remind me that I can always keep trying my best and keep living with a smile no matter how hard things get."

"When you came with the solution of leaving the village, I quickly realised how perfect that would be for me, how fate must have sent me here to you on purpose for my new path in life. It hadn't even occured to me that leaving was an option, the moment you said it I felt so free, like the barriers on my life had been kicked down. Please Izuku, take me with you. There's no way I can handle it if I'm forced to stay now, besides, this pleases everyone. My parents are fine providing for themselves, they'll have more than extra when I'm gone."

"I-I don't know want to say.."

Whatever sense of weakness and depression he had been feeling before, Ochako's faith in him alone had restored him to full power.

"Oh. Are you crying?" She laughed light heartedly, knowing her friend all to well, she reached over the table and wiped his eyes. "Don't cry Izuku. You still have an explanation for me you know."

"Oh..t-that's right."

He sobbed some more, not stopping until she rolled her eyes and placed a strawberry into his mouth, at which he gratefully chewed on admiring the taste of something other than salty water.

"I know this is gonna sound crazy but, do you remember Kacchan?"

"Kacchan?" Her head tilted.

"K-Katsuki Bakugo!" He stammered hastily in embarrassment.

Uraraka's eyes widened in realisation, and before he knew it, she had dived over the table to place her hand over his mouth, glancing around frantically.

Izuku "Hmmff!?"ed in surprise, shocked at the silence in the room as Ochako whispered, "What are you saying! Don't you know that name is taboo?"

It was too late. All the eyes in the room were on them, specifically, on Izuku. Some people tutted, glaring in disgust, others just looked shocked.

"Ahh, sorry, they used to be friends, that's all." Uraraka covered for him, standing and bowing apologetically. Immidatley after, the room broke out into chatter. Among the things being said, the most common words heard were the obvious biting insults, " _Magicless, Quirkless waste of space."_

 _"Doesn't even care about everyone's feelings."_

 _"Why do we even let him live here?"_

Ochako turned her eyes down sorrowfully, "I'm so sorry Izuku. Come on let's get out of here."

"No, it's fine." He spoke calmly. "Finish your ice-cream, I'll tell you the rest."

She sat back down reluctantly and popped a spoon of cream into her mouth. "The truth is, Kacchan is alive, and I know exactly where he is."

He mouth was left hanging open, the silver spoon falling out and landing on the bowl as she stared at him in awe.

"Seriously!?"

"Ye-No-Ah! Well I don't know exactly where he is, but I know who-or, well, _what_ he's with and if we find them, we can find him and bring him home!"

"Really? Do you think he'll come with us? Do you think he remembers us? Do you think we can find his parents if we find him and have to look?"

"Ahh..." Uraraka was asking all the right questions that he carelessly hadn't even considered. Suddenly mumbling to himself crazily, he tore out a notebook and scrawled out a simple plan.

He spoke up while his face was still in the desk and his "That all depends on whether or not we can find him, like I said, it could take decades to track him down for all I know."

"B-But I thought you knew where he was?"

"The truth is, Kacchan's turned into a feral child. He was with them when the Giant Silver Wolves attacked, but he was acting as though he was one of them and didn't seem to have many human traits left at all. If we can find the giant wolves, we can find Kacchan and bring him back to where he belongs!"

Izuku raised his book up proudly to display a simple diagram _: Find wolves, find Kacchan, take kacchan, find parents, teach him to be a human, return him._

"It's gonna take us a while, but I think it will be really worth it!" He grinned wildly to himself, even laughing a little uncharacteristically optimistic, making Ochako's eyes gleam for the tenth time that noon.

And then there was a small tap on Izuku's shoulder.

He flinched wildly, his childish self kicking in to think that he had comitted some sort of unfair crime and that the villagers had turned bully in their anger and decided to punish him.

"Ah, I didn't mean to scare you."

The voice that spoke was deep, and unfamiliar at the same time as it was familiar. Izuku looked up to see a tall man that looked to be about their age with thick square glasses surrounding his resentless intrigued eyes, adorning a heavy set of armour purchased from his very own store and made by the green head's own crafting hands, that had been handed to him not long ago.

His eyes became wide.

"I-It's no problem."

"The truth is, I couldn't help in overhearing your conversation about those giant silver Wolves and thought to myself that we can help each other out."

He extended his large straight hands as him and Ochako shook in turns with equal silent astonishment. "My name Is Tenya IIda, it's a pleasure to meet you."

* * *

 **Thank you so much reviewers from last chapter - It's nice to see that there are actually people who want to read this because I wasthisclose to taking it down and maybe starting again when the BNHA fandom becomes busier :D**

 **I hope the story continues to interest you and if you've made it this far, please leave a review of this chapter saying how you felt it was~~**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"I see, so you've really been that close to them! You are my new hero Midoriya-kun."

The looming knight the pair had once thought of as intimidating now sat beside them with practical stars in his eyes and a comfortingly nerdy journal summoned open on their table as he fawned over it, flipping through pages excitably. He had been carrying it with him to keep record of every single new detail he came to learn about the wolves on his travels - which judging by the book had gone on for quite some time.

As it turned out, Tenya Iida was on a quest himself, set out with the task of pursuing the creatures he had first seen back at home when he and his brother had been on a balcony and noticed the mystical white shadows running across the mountains nearby. He was a travelling knight who came from a family of wealth and nobility that promised a life of fortune and stability. A life he had so bravely thrown away for a life of fun, danger and adventure as he had always dreamed.

Common grounds were found easily, and great respect for one another grew with each passing word between the three, especially as Tenya flicked through his hand written pages so lovingly to display a beautiful memory sketch of astonishing detail, displaying a page of flawless looking creatures that's haunting gazes drew Izuku's breath in, admiring each and every speck of angled fur on their backs and the sparkles of the stars in their eyes. He could have sworn the pictures moves; each wolf stood frozen in time mid-motion with their jaws parted and howling openly, the sound rich enough to penetrate Izuku's soul as if it had really sounded.

"Woah!" Izuku gasped out.

"It's breathtaking." Ochako breathed.

"Thank you." He pushed up his glasses, before quickly turning to another page where a single sketch of a wolf sat in quiet solitude beside a whole page spread of navy inked italic writing.

Iida barely smiled, making it evident that he took the matter very seriously.

"The true term for the wolves are the ' _Gigantos Canis Lupus of Arctos'._ You'd be surprised to know that they appear very frequently in mythology, however more recent documentations of their appearances are far more rare. It is believed that they are immortal animals, who live for a short lifespan in correlation with the changes of the moon and reincarnate every ten years after their deaths. Presently, I believe myself to be the only living expert on their species, and as an expert, I have concluded that their is only one pack of them existing. The very same pack that visited your village a few weeks ago."

"So that's what lead you here?"

"Precisely. Since their true name is a mouthful, I've decide to adopt your nickname of Silver wolves. Though, they are not silver in any way, they fur is of the purest, untainted moon white." Tenya sliced his hand down jerkily several times as he spoke, making Ochako and Izuku flinch at first but then just stare in a mix of fascination and humour, as if he were an old professor giving a lecture.

Ochako laughed nervously at the Knight's passion, but Izuku glanced away thoughtfully, biting his lip wondering if it would be a good idea to speak or not.

"Actually... I wasn't referring to their fur with that name. No. I meant the silver magic that trickled around them."

Tenya had whipped open his book to a new page and conjured up an ink and quill in seconds, "Their magic? Explain it?"

"At first it resembled fog, something thick and yet transparent and intangible but as they got closer, I quickly realised it wasn't ... it was brighter than fog, and swayed as if it had a life of its own, It was almost like unrestrained translucent fire that slipped around their ankles and rose up to above their heads, making them all the more beautiful, but at the same time, all the more petrifyingly otherworldly. It made me wonder if they were illusions created by someone else's magic, or a hallucination of my own mind, or if they were even real at all. Oh- I almost forgot, the wolves had a sort of quirk to them now that I think about it. The thing is, I don't know if it was when they looked at you or when you decided to threaten them that it activated, but somehow, they had the power to deactivate the magic of a human, rendering them useless. Like me."

Tenya was the picture of pragmatism as he spoke. "That's one of the most fascinating things about them. Like I said, their power is dependant on the moon. Tell me Izuku, how was the moon that night?"

With Katsuki's glowing image fresh in his mind, Izuku didn't even need to think. He answered instantly. "It was full. Bright too."

"I thought so. It was no coincidence they chose that evening and the night before to come to your village. It was when their power was highest and they chose their battles based on that. Unfortunately for them, their power relies on turning one's own magical energy against them. For you, that meant they fought nothing with nothing. Zero against zero. Aside from their physical bodies, they were unarmed. On top of that, you outsmarted them."

Tenya smiled admiringly, the kind of smile that didn't come from sympathy or ingenuity.

Izuku rubbed the side of his face, blushing unused to receiving compliments or any kind words from strangers at all.

"Given the circumstances, I'm willing to bet that the Silver Wolves will strike an attack on somewhere pretty nearby by the end of next week. That gives us until then to locate them and hunt them down. I believe you are the key to stopping them. Will you help me?"

Izuku flushed hot. His innocent child's heart pounded with all of the glamour a boy too inversed in comic book escapism felt at being told the dream words a young boy growing up in doubt of himself had always fantasised of hearing. It was like a dream had come true, a prayer had been answered. Like he was about to open the first chapter of his own story.

On top of it all, the words had come from the mouth of a foreign, powerful stranger who had visited him in his shop looking to buy his armour only to have them meet again a few weeks later as if it were fate.

He was smiling ear to ear.

"Where shall we begin?"

* * *

Izuku's first experience beyond the borders of his village consisted of walking, walking and more walking. As the hours passed, his smile slowly faded, seeing nothing but what he thought were the same trees over and over with no indication of location or whereabouts, he was quickly overwhelmed. While he'd joined in with Ochako and Tenya's curious, happy conversations at first it took less than two hours before he found himself struggling to breathe as he silently fought to stay in pace with them. After three, his legs were sore from walking and after the fourth, his mouth was so dry and thirsty he wished he hadn't finished his entire water bottle a few miles back.

Roughly half an hour later, the teen was just about ready to drop dead, when the thick, endless forests suddenly broke and they entered a clearing of grass. Sunlight finally returned to his skin before more vast open field space than Izuku's curious eyes had ever seen in his life. He couldn't help but feel tiny, like he was an ant in the space at least two times the size of his entire village swallowed him whole. A few boulders dotted around the grass, and there was a mysteriously sharp drop where the grass ended in the miles ahead, but other than that, all Izuku could see was blooming green below vibrant blue and white clouds that looked like they could swallow him whole.

"I-It's amazing!" He yelled suddenly, dropping to his knees and looking out mesmerised.

"Yeaaah!" With seemingly endless energy, Ochako bolted out ahead of him and sprinted into the cartwheels and mid-air somersaults Izuku wished he could perform. "I'ts so huge! This would be a great place to start a new village right Deku?!"

"Uraraka please! Let's not act like children, if this were somewhere else there could have been traps or dangers awaiting." Tenya panicked before Izuku could answer, demonstrating the same unique hand gesture as before.

Ochako came running over giggling apologetically, Izuku following closely behind Iida who had thrown his bags down onto a rock that he was now leaning on. Izuku tried desperately to climb it so he could take the seat he had long since deserved. He sighed as he settled down at last.

"Well Midoriya-kun, what do you see?

"Huh?" Izuku only just understood what he meant when he saw the direction the blue eyes faced. He turned his head curiously, before standing up on his toes above the boulder they had chosen over many to reside on.

As he'd thought, the field did cut short abruptly without even a disturbance in the grass, making him feel all the more unstable and tiny with how indefinitely high up they could possible be. It was strange, as he'd grown up thinking they were always on the ground, to discover that his island was really quite mountainous.

"Um... well we're clearly on a cliff of some sort. Hey, is this the edge of the isl-" Turning back to look at where they had came from proved to be a great mistake, as he nearly lost his balance at the sight. "Woah, I can see the whole island from here!"

If these screams were of him when he was tired, Iida could only imagine how excited he would be if he hadn't been on the brink of passing out.

"Seriously? Move over will you!"

In a single jump, Uraraka landed beside him. Jumping up on her tip toes to share the view of all the trees stretched out above them, just as high above them as the cliffs were low below them. They felt like insects trapped between a war of two giants, but in the best way possible as Izuku noticed some even taller mountains looming into the clouds in the far distance beyond the forest they had just walked through, the forest that had felt like an eternity, but looking back now seemed like only a segment of what was to come.

"The whole island? That's merely a corner."

The pair sounded out their amazement very similarly, meeting their gazes and laughing excitably.

"So where's our village in all of that forest?" Ochako pointed her thumb out, "That way? Maybe that way? There's really no indication it's there at all!"

Izuku's heart fluttered at the realisation of how pleasantly tiny he and his entire village of bullies where compared to the rest of their world.

"I didn't mean to look there, I meant straight ahead. Tell me what you see."

Both of their heads turned together like two meerkats. Iida watched triumphantly as their eyes went wide.

"I-Is that all a lake?" Ochako mouthed.

"No. I've read about this before, it's not a lake, it's the ocean!"

Beyond the sharp cliffs and what had once seemed gigantic fields and forests, there lay and even larger mass of sky blue water that covered everything their eyes could see until the pale azure horizon kissed the earth.

Every thing they could see save for one thing. Obstructing the otherwise flawless view, there loomed a large black shadow of a building, made more intricately and more complexly ( not to mention hugely ) than any structure Izuku had ever seen in his life.

It was created from a sort of black stone that made it appear as if it were a shadow, if it weren't for the fact that the sun revealed several parts of it to have details and patterns carved between the bricks beautifully, they would have thought it was a shadow and looked around for what was casting it.

A female voice beat Izuku to his lingering question before he could even take his eyes off of it. "Is that a castle?"

"Yes." Tenya responded happily.

"Is it haunted?" Izuku added, his stomach twisting from too many novels and fantasies and not enough exploring in reality.

"No. Though, it may be inhabited by something inhuman and a little bit supernatural." He pushed his glasses up tacitly. "Now do you understand why I brought you here?" He grinned.

"You think the wolves might be here?!" Izuku's stomach did a double take trying to comprehend how quickly it took to find them, pushing him out of logic momentarily.

"Really? How would they get to the castle? Isn't the ocean full of dangerous predators?" Ochako thought out loud absentmindedly, not realising her words had shocked the knight, who restlessly pushed his glasses up as he spoke flatly.

"S-Silver wolves are excellent swimmers you know."

"Hm...Then how would they get down from all the cliffs without hurting themselves?"

Tenya felt another vital blow in his direction again.

"T-that might be the case, but the fact is, rumours have stated that mysterious large white animals were seen around this area on multiple occasions. We can't afford _not_ to check it out. Anyway, aside from the light of the moon of course, Silver Wolves are creatures of darkness, mystery and isolation from humans. What could be more perfect to harbour them than an abandoned decrepit castle like that one?"

"You've got a good point." Izuku nodded, staring at the building somewhat woefully, feeling butterflies inside him already _. And they hadn't even faced danger yet._

"Well, what do you say? Shouldn't we check it out?"

"Yeah!" Ochako chimed, jumping into the air, whereas Izuku held one hand to his stomach and stared at the building with his mouth open.

"But, how are we going to get overe there?"

The tallest smirked knowingly. "Now that's the fun part, follow me."

He grabbed his bag and headed off, leaving the others (Izuku especially) barely any time at all to jump down and gather his things before jumping off the rock, only to realise as his face plummeted into the grass that his legs weren't yet as strong as his female friends'.

When he finally caught up to them, he was breathless, skidding to a stop at the very edge of the island and staring down at the incredibly violent white thrashes of water against rock below them. The roaring of the water was all he could hear; the foam, the bubbles, the way the rocks had been eroded into sharp jaggedness that looked like it could cut through him effortlessly.

He gaped at his friends tearily.

"I suppose you might be a bit heavy, but I guess I could just take you one by one-"

Ochako gasped loudly, shocking them both to the point they jumped away from her, thinking she had seen some terrible enemy.

"What's the matter?"

"I have something just perfect for that, hold onto me and Deku will you, and whatver you do, don't let go."

Izuku recognised the excited gleam in his friends eyes and stared at her hands in realisation, grinning nervously before she suddenly slammed one palm into his cheek, and the other onto her own. "Zero Gravity: ON!"

The dizzying feeling of being too light for the earth overcame Izuku as he floated up like a balloon, only stopping from drifting endlessly up by Tenya's tight grip on his shirt.

"You're two are light as a feather. This is perfect! Is this your quirk Ochako?"

"Mhmm!" She grinned happily, floating over to Izuku to adjust him so he wasn't laying upside down but standing in a way that left him feeling a little less afraid and a little more in control.

"Then I think it's only fitting that I show you mine. Hold onto me tight you two, now it's your turn not to let go."

They faced each other nervously each nodding and clinging to a shoulder each.

"I mean it, because if you let go, it will probably end your lives."

As Ochako's smile widened in bewilderment, Izuku's heart nearly popped like a shattered glass, wondering what his mom would think if she were to see this.

"Recipro..."

IIda stepped backwards, the back of his legs suddenly glowing brightly to emit a radiant blue light.

"BURST!"

Before any more thoughts could inspire his inhibitions, the knight's sprint sent them hurling forwards, acceleration beyond what Izuku thought any human should experience as he cheeks were slapped backwards roughly and his skin was nearly sucked cleanly off of his skin. His scream rained out, louder than he thought he could scream as his heart lit up in a terrified bubbliness that topped with the nausea of his stomach was enough to have him fighting passing out as the raving frothy white shores blurred by, carrying them nearer to the deep and terrifying blue water by the second. Ochako beside him only laughed, cheering Tenya on wildly.

Then finally, they stopped. Tenya and Ochako landed perfectly, the latter even rolling into a mini somersault and standing with her arms up like an impromptu cheerleader. Whereas Izuku was sent tumbling ahead with momentum he couldn't control, nearly smacking his skull into a rock, were it not for the anti-gravity lifting him up as he rolled towards the sky diagonally, getting closer and clsoer to the daunting black castle.

"Gravity off!"

"NO!" Izuku screamed, destined to collide with the floor of the doorstep, only to be caught in Ochako's warm arms.

"Don't worry, I got ya."

He was breathing heavily, looking up at her the way he looked at his mother as she handed him his warm meal after a long day.

And then his feet hit the ground.

"Sorry, you're pretty heavy when you have your gravity on." She laughed, dropping him and dusting off her hands.

Izuku instantly reached into the water and heaved.

"I-It's fine." He was pale and dizzy. Noticeably in need of a break and some food.

"Are you sure, maybe we should take a break before we enter?"

Izuku huffed and collapsed to the floor the second she finished speaking, sitting cross legged, he breathed out heavily and internally accosted himself for underestimating the amount of physical health this would take. He couldn't just go from sitting down 20 hours a day to walking for most of it, especially when that strange and exhilarating flying came into the equation.

"I think you should have some water Midoriya-kun."

"I'm all out, could you refill mine at the ocean Ochako?"

"Okay," She was just about to accept the bottle, as the were suddenly almost level with the ocean on this tiny island that was really only an oversized rock, when IIda interjected.

"No, no! You shouldn't drink from the ocean it's salt water and it's not good for your health, nor should you drink from lakes. Didn't anyone ever teach you this?"

The pair grimaced, "In our village we drank from a river all the time."

"That's a clear water stream. Honestly." He tutted. "I'll just have to lend you an invigoration pill."

"No." Izuku pushed himself, standing up on his feet much to the surprise of his companions, who thought he was just about to drop dead. His confidence wavered however as his knees wobbled.

"No pills, My body has to get used to this lifestyle on it's own. Even if it means I'm sore tomorrow, I have to decline energy boosters and keep going myself. I know I'll be tired, but if you let me rest now _I won't want to get back up_."

"But...Deku, what if we need to run? How are you going to fight if things end up going badly in there?"

The green haired hated to be such a cause for concern, but he wasn't progressing at all by picking on himself. He knew he should say something to defend himself, but what? It was selfish of him for them to ask to cover for him but... what else was he supposed to do? He really wanted to get stronger.

"If it comes to that, I'll carry Izuku-kun." Ochako and Izuku both glanced at the knight in surprise to see that he was smiling rather fondly at them.

Ochako rubbed the back of her head laughing, "And I'll make him lighter again so you can carrier him easier."

"That sounds like a plan." He agreed.

Izuku stood up, unable to contain his grin. "You guys are the best."

They smiled back at him warmly fading slowly into frowns to see too teary green eyes sobbing up at them relentlessly. Iida blushed bright red into apologies, but Ochako sighed and put her hand on his arm to stop him. "Don't stress, he does this all the time."

* * *

With much struggle, the black doors finally creaked open, a thick layer of dusk falling down to greet them and very much nearly burying Izuku if it weren't for IIda's grasp on the back of his shirt stopping him from walking forward.

"It doesn't seem like anyone's been here for years. Wolves included."

Although barely anything could be seen, all three strained their eyes to look a head, immediately feeling the way the atmosphere dropped and the silence greeted them.

"Wow." They stared in awe at the aching darkness that spanned out before them like an abyss or bottomless pit, filled with eerie details barely visible and easy for one's imagination to contort into monsters. A pair of heavy looking velvet curtains in the far corner parted to reveal the torn, dishevelled state of the room, allowing in only a slither of light even as they opened it fully, the glasses in the windows stained black by something unknown.

Looking on further revealed the spacious hall of a room they stood in to be a large entrance area to what was clearly part castle, part mansion. Some of the antique furniture and dark carpets and wallpapers were torn by scratches of knives, weapons, or perhaps claws, while other items remained perfectly maintained with strangely not a touch of dust on the them. It was as if some things had been frozen in time, or protected by some sort of curse while other things were exposed to whatever harsh dangers were lurking for them ready to cut and stab and slice and destroy anything that dared to enter the room and disturb them.

"Achoo!" Ochako sneezed loudly, the sound nearly giving Izuku a heart attack. Even Tenya jumped out of his skin, turning to face her with his hand ready to draw his sword, only to stand straightly with a clearly red face of embarrassment.

"Sorry!" She apologised, her voice contrastingly loud with the silent, deathly beauty they stood in. It reminded them of how vast the castle really was.

"Ochako, keep your voice down!"

"Oops. Sorry!" She whispered this time, to Izuku who smiled lightly as he turned back to his close examination of the foreign, expensive room. All three of them where unaware that if something were to be residing here, that the oh so pleasant lively ring in Uraraka's voice had already awoken it as well as lured it right here to where they were, slipping down the stairs behind a shadow to watch the three with cautious, apprehensive eyes.

"Come on. We should check out the other rooms to. If we need to run out, remember your path out of here."

"Shouldn't we go upstairs?" Ochako asked softly, gesturing towards the wide alabaster stairway in the very centre of the room, the top of which was an ominous pit of ven thicker shadows. They shuddered universally, glad when Tenya explained: "No, we should explore one level at a time, that way if anything is down here, we won't be unconsciously trapping ourselves upstairs."

They nodded in agreement. "Lets stay together."

Despite these words, as Ochako turned her back reluctantly to the wide upstairs, she could have sworn her eyes had seen something white flicker with motion from the corner of her eye. The connection only seemed to click several seconds later when she had already followed Izuku and Tenya into the entrance of a second room, when the sound of her footsteps suddenly stopped. She was left her alone in the doorway as her friends disappeared into the darkness of the next room obliviously before her and just out of her focus zone as she stared intently at the direction of the motion captivated by keeping her fear intact as she desperately searched for some sign to reveal that it wasn't as alarming as her pounding heart thought. It wasn't long before looking and squinting intently revealed that there was in fact something brighter than the rest of the room before her.

It was a head. A life sized human head modelled intricately into sharp marble with terrifying realism. Ochako stared mesmerised at the dead carved out eyes that seemed wide as though screaming despite the flat line of the lips, dragging over the and the smooth curves of its cheeks she found herself reaching out to feel her own face shape in amazement at the artisan accuracy.

She could have sworn she'd seen something move but... it must have been because her own body moved. She tried not to be spooked.

It was a statue. As well as this, the head was far away, not to mention in the dark, so she could barely see it. Or anything around it, as it was white, it drew more attention that the darker objects behind it proving to be the perfect shelter for the creature lurking in the darkness below.

Her tawny eyes squinted at the statue. Statue. Not alive, but if that was the case, why was it suddenly so much closer than it had been once before, with a life of its own as it's widened hollow eyes stared her straight in the face not an inch away, as if the expression of a girl screaming.

"AAH!" Ochako's face quickly mimicked it, reaching out to protect herself as she bolted off away from the floating object only to clash right into Izuku who was noticeably startled by her outburst, with his hands trembling as he grabbed a hold of hers in an attempt to calm her.

"What happened Ochako? Are you alright?"

"Ochako-san, did you see the wolves? Where they back there!?" Tenya whispered loudly, putting his hand on her back almost protectively as he turned to face the other room pensively.

"N-No! Don't go back there, I think this place is haunted."

"What haunted?! I didn't know things like that were real." Izuku trembled, looking towards Tenya with great uncertainty.

The taller watched his smaller companions almost teary expressions for several moments with a straight face of contemplation. Eventually, he smiled in the darkness of the open dining hall room and brushed up his glasses.

"While it is true that with magic, curses certainly can be placed on people that last even after death, the likelihood of such a thing affecting people other than the one directly cursed is low. In other words, no, this place is not haunted."

"But if the place was haunted not ther person living in it, wouldn't that mean it would attack anyone who disturbs the building?"

Tenya was stumped by Izuku's reasoning once again, left flustered and desperately propping up his glasses in search for an excuse as Ochako grew more scared by the moment.

"I-Impossible...b-because...because there are no such things as ghosts!"

They stared at him like children in need of calming. He felt confidence and reason and the rules of science and magic return to him. "To ensure the magic, the owner of the house must still be here, and judging by the amount of dust, they are most definitely somewhere far away, and they have been for a long, long time."

"But I'm right here." A pleasant voice breathed warmly beside his ear.

"AAAHHH!" Tenya gave up all proud concepts of a Knight to scream even higher than Uraraka had moments ago, jumping away so even he was taking shelter behind Izuku's obviously shorter slimmer frame.

His screaming triggered the said brunette, who took a hold of Izuku's other shoulder and hid behind him, peaking out at the tall, slim woman standing before them in a long ice-blue sleeping gown that looked more expensive than Izuku's entire house (presented impeccably neatly in comparison to the rest of the dilapidated house) who looked out at them with unreadable dark eyes that's colour could not be confirmed in this lack of light behind a head of unbrushed, colourless straight hair.

Despite her apparent, mystifying beauty that left her eerily practically glowing, there were several parts of here that were withered down obviously by age. She smiled at them stilly, as though welcomingly hostile, as though she might snap at any moment, but was trying hard to keep herself in check and be hospitable.

"You're t-the owner of the house?" He spoke up, since nobody else appeared to be in any position to do so.

"Mhmm." She hummed, the sound echoing around as her body remained motionless and unaffected by her voice, like she was a prerecorded image or hollogram.

With her hair and dress so pale, Izuku wondered if his hand would go right through her as he extended it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you... and sorry for the intrusion. We thought this place was empty, save for what we're looking for."

"Oh?" She hummed, her face ever still as her surprisingly warm hands shooked his welcomingly. "And what might that be? I know everything that goes on in this house, so perhaps I can be of help."

Izuku swallowed hard at her tone. At her incredibly round eyes opening like cocoons as she glanced around the four walls, making him feel suddenly aware of his surroundings as well as her words as he stood in her abode where she knew every nook and cranny but his knowledge was practically unarmed.

He sent a nervous glance back to Tenya, cautious of what to tell her and whether or not they should trust her.

"I-If you don't mind me asking maam," He swallowed, hoping he was buying enough time for Tenya to regain his composure and take over the conversation.

"If you are the owner of this house, does that make you a-a ghost?"

There was pin-drop silence. Not even the slightest trace of breathing from either of them could be heard, each of the three teens receding back as though afraid the still smiling woman would explode in their faces, bringing the castle crashing down around them at any moment now.

Instead, she took them by surprise with a pleasant, melodious laugh.

"Of course not, though I understand why you might think so." She responded, brushing off her skirt and rubbing at her messy hair nervously.

"Gosh, I wish I had a way of knowing when I was about to get company. My sense of foresight is useless outside of the house."

Uraraka's back straightened surprised and obviously eased at the laughter, as Izuku felt the weight of two gradually releasing and returning the freedom of mobility back to his shoulders.

"So you're not going to try and kill us?" She dared to ask, her body language just about ready to go running.

The woman laughed again, "Why would I kill my only polite guests in such a long time. To be honest, you're the first guests of mine that were polite enough to keep your voices down and not destroy anything. But don't be alarmed! Even to those people who had such little respect I showed them the greatest hospitality, company is rare after all."

"T-Then if you won't hurt us...w-what was with that sculpture attacking me back there!?" She squealed, biting her lip so her voice wouldn't become too passionate.

"Attacking you? I would have never let it hurt you, I was just scared suddenly at the thought of you spotting me hiding behind it. The reason I came down here was to examine you anyway, to make sure you weren't the kind of people that would hurt me before I decided to speak to you. I learnt to watch out for that sort of ting from experience. I'm sorry if I scared you darling, you all look like you're quite lovely now that I'm face to face with you."

She had directed so many smiles at them, Izuku was unsure of what to do. Darkened emerald eyes flickered back sneakily to find Tenya still tight lipped and pale from shock as he watched the woman blankly. Clearly, the knight wouldn't be of help anytime soon.

"Excuse me but, if you're not a ghost, then why do you stay here all alone, there have clearly been some dangerous people walking in here on a whim Miss...?"

Izuku glanced down at the broken plates and shards of glass spread on the floor, the spilt candle wax and cupboards that had been ripped open and turned into target practice for kitchen knives. All evidence of the danger in the home and the capability for less than safe guests.

"Todoroki." She responded, her voice grim. "You may call me Miss Todoroki."

For the first time since they had met her, her eyes darkened, shrinking to a size that wasn't quite as wide or amicably round.

"To answer that, I'm afraid I may have to share a story that's quite somber.."

"Oh, I didn't mean to-"

"S-sorry we asked something insensitive!" Ochako chimed empathetically.

"Not at all, in fact, I think it will help me to have someone to talk to about it. No one's ever asked before." She looked back up and smiled yet again, "You children can come with me upstairs, it might be hard to believe, but it's a much nicer atmosphere once you reach the top floor."

"Okay, we'd be happy to, is that okay Iida?" Izuku looked back and gently nudged his friend who gasped as though he had been returned to his body after leaving, bursting into a nervous speech instantly.

"S-Sh-ould be fine...we'll...find...later." He was barely coherent, eyes still drawn to Miss Todoroki. Izuku would have been alarmed, but as the woman's hand birthed a glowing blue crystal of ice, he found he didn't have time to collect his thoughts.

"Ah, and when we get there, you lovely people can tell me about whatever you thought was in here waiting for you."

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter is a bit lame (and late). There was a better version I had uploaded and edited before but when I clicked on the SAVE button, even though I was clearly logged in, it said I had to be logged in for me to save. So I desperately logged in hoping to be taken here with everything able to be saved, but it took me back to the home page and NOTHING I'D EDITED HAD BEEN SAVED.**

 **Considering that was about 2000 extra words I was annoyed as hell! Enough to put me off writing it all out again for at least a few more days. The moral of the story is, always 'copy' what you've written online so if worst comes to worst you can just 'paste' it onto a new document without losing all the ideas you'd written.**

 **Sorry for the rant, sorry for the lateness. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter and thanks so much for motivating me with previous reviews~~**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Much to their surprise, the woman was telling the honest truth when she described the upper levels of the house.

The section was in no way dilapidated or decayed, with the rich crimson rug far more luxurious than anything Ochako or Izuku had ever seen, and the many ornaments around the area making it an obviously cosy and lived in environment.

Although, it was drastically smaller than the bottom of the house, and consisted only of four large rooms each at the top of four different stair cases. Izuku wondered to himself how she managed to swap between rooms when it meant venturing through the rest of the terrifying castle.

"Tea anyone?" She offered politely, her voice still every bit as ghostly melodious and pleasingly pitched as before.

All three teens nodded eagerly, accepting the expensive herbal drinks from even more expensive china cups with great delight.

"You've made this a lovely place." Ochako commented.

She laughed gratefully, "Oh no, it was the housekeepers before it was abandoned that made it so great. I only maintained what they had created, and a poor job of that I did, considering the state of the rest of the house."

After sipping his tea and nibbling on confectioneries, Iida had finally regained his knightly code of honour and managed to speak up. "Seeing this place, I can almost understand why you remain here. Though at the same time, I'll admit I do find the choice rather baffling."

Her eyes were dark again as she smiled sadly, "The truth is, although I have grown accustomed to my situation, I wasn't always here by choice."

"You mean somebody forced you here and then.. trapped you?" Izuku treaded carefully as though on a layer of weakened ice that might break if he applied too much pressure to a certain place.

"It's okay." He drew back at her ability to almost see into his thoughts, wondering if that was a magical ability of hers. "I love a good story as much as anyone, so here's mine."

Izuku could already tell it would be a sad one. She hadn't even said a word, and yet his mind was praising her for still being able to speak clearly and smile.

Iida thought the same thing, but brushed it off to be the training a high classed woman went through when it came to marriage and other things. He knew many people similar back in his home town...

"Where to start...Oh, that's right. I guess it would begin with my marriage to my husband." She brushed her thumb over the platinum and sapphire ring she wore on her finger - it looked like something worth more than all three of their lives put together.

"I still consider us to be married to this day, though for all I know he could have other children with other women." She laughed light heartedly, "We really are quite out of touch." She then whispered, as though only just reflectively realising this fact herself.

" It never had been a marriage of love: from the day I was sent his picture as my fiance at age 12 and began my training, to the day I met him and sixteen and became his wife, losing what was left of my freedom. I was never happy with him, which maybe contributes to why I'm so content being here."

She brushed some of her hair behind her shoulder, taking an elegant, almost royal sip from her tea.

"My first impression of him was simple; he was arrogant, rude, aggressive and had a one track mind that not only limited his skill in multi-tasking, but also blinded him to everything that wasn't his present goal at the moment, and after I officially became his property as a wife, that included myself he was blinded to as well."

"But being a young girl who had her freedom stripped from her by strict parents, Enj- my husband was the first man I'd had in my life, and as a young gullible child, I found his actions somehow charming...and so I was charmed by him." She laughed in embarrassment.

"Shamefully so, since before I knew it, I was pregnant with my first child. That's when things started to turn sour. For whatever reason, he was always unhappy with our children, and blamed me for whatever he thought was wrong with our beautiful daughter. Perhaps he wanted a child resembling him more, perhaps he wanted a boy. With these thoughts in regard, and a part of me wanting to be accepted by the man I'd spent four years of my life being trained to impress, we had another child. A boy, a lovely boy who resembled his father more, and who I miss very much."

Izuku could see a reflection of his own mother's protectiveness flicker into the cold and dark eyes of the woman before them. She held her hand to her heart, but her voice remained strong.

"But somehow, this child didn't please him either. I started to think his displeasure was with me, I started to think that he was in love with another. After our third child, I started to lose faith that he was capable of loving anyone at all. He would complain to my parents daily about how I was a failure of a wife, right in front of our children, he would threaten them and vent his anger by terrifying them, saying he should send me back to them and disgrace them, or worse, that he would have me killed. I would hold my youngest's ears. My daughter would be so mature she would care for her other brother and block their father's taunts out. It was clear to me that they resented and feared him as much as I did. But I was too meek to say anything."

She breathed in sharply. Her hands were trembling as she took another sip. "And then, my fourth child was born."

Izuku had never seen so much affection and warmth in her eyes before. It made him want to reach out and clench her hands tightly the way he did to his own mother, but Ochako beat him to it and smiled back at her.

"My Sho," She hummed. "From the moment of his birth he was recognised for his unique beauty, it even somehow managed to reach his father, and for the first year of his life, he acted as the bond that pulled the shreds of our family together and made me feel loved and welcomed by my husband again. It was as he grew older that I started to realise that my husband's love was held only for our fourth son and somehow didn't include the rest of us."

"When I noticed his blatant rejection of our other children in comparison, it struck a bitter chord within me. When I tried to encourage that he extend his affections to make Sho's brother's and sisters feel more included, I soon realised that I was in the same category as them. He treated me as if I had served my purpose. I had birthed him an heir to his family name and from that day on, he would barely look at me. He loved our son, yes. I thought I should be happy that he finally cared for someone. But, it was strange to me and very suspicious. Then, when Sho turned five, I saw his love for what it was."

"My husband... couldn't care less about the health and happiness of our son. He treated him like a body to be controlled by his soul and will regardless of how it made him feel. His love for him was entirely self centred to the point where I couldn't help but intervene. But intervention wasn't the wisest of choices for a woman who was, and is weak like me."

"Of course, he wouldn't accept my opinions. Our disagreements turned to fights, and those fights turned to violence that I defended against with the less of my strength and deteriorating security, disturbing our children who had no choice but to watch it. My eldest tried to move out, but her will was crushed by her father, and she was forced to stay here. I hated the way he used fear to control them, to turn them into his puppets. Before I knew it, the only child to look in my eyes with the same unconditional love I gave them was my youngest, but he was constantly pressured by his father and given all his attention, hopes dreams and time, leaving me barely any time with him. I could only cope with the violence by sleeping in the arm chair beside Sho's bed, relying on the hope that he would at least care not to wake his son."

"As much as I loved my children, they were only half my own. Sho especially who barely spent a day without his father. His father who he... resembled more and more every day. I clung to the part of him that sided with me and still looked at me with the adoring eyes of a mother, not being able to bare the idea of losing another child and being alone in that household. As my father passed away from old age at around that time. It was only my mother who I could talk to."

"...And then, in my time of weakness and grieving, as I clang to my last son in desperation, unable to bare handing him over to his father, he was pried out of my hands and was beaten for trying to leave his father and run to my side to comfort me. He... must have been old enough to know his father's actions were wrong back then, he must have known how weak of a woman I was fir staying there... What kind of mother burdens her child with her tears that way? But he ran towards me anyway. Because of me, he was beaten in front of my eyes and out of the reach of my helpless, helpless hands. I screamed and cried, bawling on the ground like a child until he left Sho and turned to hurt me instead."

She stared down at her empty, frail pale hands on her lap as Izuku subconsciously clenched his own around whatever air he could grab onto, just to remind himself that he could.

"I was beaten so badly that day I could no longer see what was real. I lay in bed for who knows how long, knowing my son was being mistreated and forced into harsh training just a few rooms away from where I could walk. In my blur of what my mind had aspired for my marriage, what the harsh reality was, and what consequences this would have, I told my mother every disgraceful fact regardless of her recent mourning, bearing the burden down on her and telling her how I hated it there. I hated my husband. I hated the life she had forced me into, and I hated the ungrateful children I had created that looked at me like clones of their manipulative father with the same view of me as an object. A woman who had spent too much time in the house and away from the real world.. as if they knew I wasn't there to protect them, but because I was too scared to leave myself. It drove me to the point of wishing I'd never had them."

"Of course, that was the furthest from the truth I could be. I was hurt, so childishly, I wanted someone else to be hurt too. I victimised myself and villainized everyone else. I wanted my mother to feel guilty for what she did. But my words ended up being heard by not just here but my baby. M-my youngest, most loving, most innocent child, who looked up at me with tears after hearing that his own mother wished she'd never had him..."

Her eyes appeared almost iced over in a haze of the past. Almost dead, like the life in them had been frozen to a halt.

"Unable to cope with the crushing reality of having hurt my most beloved in this world, I panicked, and as I had been hurt previously before, I acted mindlessly the way others had treated me, reaching out violently to the first thing I could grab a hold of, and permanently scarred my irreplaceable baby boy's face. The rest was a blur."

"Unable to forgive me, my husband brought me here. Unable to forgive myself, I watched as he placed a curse on the building that forbade me from leaving and forbade any relative or friend other than himself entry. I watched as he left, and pressed my hand against the invisible, windowless glass."

She stood gracefully, her white dress trailing behind her like the gown of a sorrowful bride, opening up the stained glass window and reaching her hand out, a transluscent rippling wall suddenly appeared, stopping her movement still.

"I couldn't leave, but there was enough food to survive. I couldn't talk to anyone, but there were no rules, no abusers, and no reminders of my previous life chaining me down. In a tragic sort of irony, it was everything I had prayed for having been answered and fulfilled in a cruel way. It's been ten years since then, and I've been here every since. Occasionally, people like yourselves come by and treat this place as a shelter or come here to explore. When they do, I greet them eagerly and show them great hospitality and live off of their stories of adventures, helping me to cope with being held prisoner here."

Izuku could relate so strongly he felt his skin burn with sweat.

"Though, not all of them are as delighted to see me as I am to them. I've learned that the hard way, as the condition downstairs may tell. And so, I resolved to test their attitudes before introducing myself to them, living deceptively, fearfully and alone here in this tower. If I ever were to leave, I wouldn't know where to go, what to do or how to live, the guilt would probably kill me. So I stay here obediently without fighting. There a people who sleep cold in the forest or on the streets where they can beg villagers, so to be in a castle like this is far from suffering."

She sighed, smiling up at the settling sun behind the window, turning back to them. "It's a great pleasure to be able to tell my story to someone who listens so intently."

IIda shook at her glance on his unguarded expression, nodding his head vehemently with a faint blush on his cheeks.

She laughed sweetly, exhaling smoothly. "Thank you, it's been so long since I've been able to get that off of my chest."

It only just came to their attention that from the corner of their eyes, Ochako was crying. She had her teeth gritt and her eyes wide, but her pupils trembled with admiration and lack of humiliation.

"T-That story was so much I think I'm gonna cry!"

The brunette didn't seem to notice that she was already, her skin pink with the trails of gushing tears.

"Oh, dear I didn't quite mean to-"

She was pulled into a hug sharply, Ochako sobbing and hugging tightly as Miss Todoroki looked forward in shock. Her eyes softened in seconds, placing her hand on Ochako's back and speaking in the cool, controlled coo of a calming mother of four.

"I-I think I have to communicate to my parents more..."

"Yes, that's right."

"A-and tell them how much I love them."

"You go on ahead and do that sweety."

Ochako made a thick of violet fog in her palm, running out of the room around the corner while wiping her teary eyes.

"Mom..?" Her voice was barely heard from this distance.

That left only Izuku who hadn't responded.

"I hope she isn't too upset."

"Miss Todoroki." He spoke resolutely, his eyes downcast, and yet shining with strength and determination. "I want to help you get out of here."

Whatever reaction he had been expecting, he didn't recieve it. There was only silence. No movements, motion or sign of shock. Then again, that was a reaction in itself. He looked up to see dark eyes not wide or shocked at all however, a new expressionless, undreadable level of blank.

"I too felt trapped and abused in my village, and since leaving and discovering freedom alone felt so great, I want to help you too."

"I see." She thought quietly.

"You really are a kind boy. Izuku was it?"

Izuku nodded, Tenya snapping up in realisation.

"Oh that's right we haven't introduced ourselves. I apologise for being so rude. I'm Tenya Iida a wandering knight and this is Izuku Midoriya, he and Miss Ochako came from the same village in search of a common interest." Tenya swallowed his strangely dry throat and glanced down as if contemplating before speaking up again. "I also wish to help you find your way out of here."

"I see. It's been a pleasure. However, I... I can't help but strongly disagree. I don't want any help, and that's not me being stubborn." She smiled at their shocked reactions, Tenya sinking back into his seat to look at her eager for an explanation.

"I'm more happy here than I ever was with any of the pressures of the outside world. Besides, there's nothing waiting for me out there, I'll admit it does get lonely, but it's taught me to be appreciative when people occasionally do stop by. I'm much warmer and more sociable than I ever was before arriving here. Besides, as you can see I've gotten used to living in this castle, it's a home to me now."

They had to glance back around the room at each of her clearly valued items arranged away in expensive boxes under scented charms and lit by gently glowing crystals similar to the ones on the chandelier. Everything was placed with care.

"It's quite nice...but still... I never thought there was anything out of my village for me until I saw it for myself. Now that I've left, I wish I'd have done it sooner."

Tenya wasn't as soft in his convincing.

"Don't you wish to see your children again? Your precious son who grew up without a mother, and your husband may have grown into a better person by now who feels too guilty to show his face here, but wishes to see you still?" He listed.

Izuku paled at his forwardness.

"I-I would certainly want to see you again if I were your son."

"Exactly. Ma'am, your poor children are out there, so it doesn't matter how much you like it here, you should keep pressing until your children have no choice but to realise how you truly are and forgive you. It is your duty as a mother, and my duty as a knight to take you out of here to greet your loved ones. If your husband happens to still be angry with you, we can protect you from him. It's about time you stop hiding and wasting your life away in here-"

"W-What he means is people constantly change so-!"

Izuku trailed off, watching distraught as her cup landed gracefully onto the saucer with a cold, solid _cling!_ Her head tilted downwards to cover her eyes.

Panic lit in his body like a flame at the fear of having upset her. He stood up frantically and rushed to bow down, stuttering as if he were malfunctioning.

"P-please, don't take offence we...we meant no harm! Really it was just because your story inspired us, all three of us that is, so much and Iida might not be great at explaining it but I understand what he's-"

Amongst his speech spoken all in one breath, a growing whisper could be heard rising into a raspy yell.

"My son...My son!?" Her voice was suddenly loud, shaking them as if a glacier had just crashed nearby and taken a chunk out of their island with it.

"Do you think he even remembers anything positive of me?! Do you think that after spending 10 years with that father of his that he'll be any different than the others?! Anything more than a mindless, brainwashed servant! Why would I dare to look into the eyes of the boy I scarred!? There are a lot of things I dislike about my husband, but there is one thing I can agree on him with, and that is that as a mother who hurt a defenceless child into tears such as myself has NO business daring to show her face to that boy! I'll stay here for the rest of my life if I have to, because the fact is, I have committed a crime and I deserve to pay the price regardless of who I'm married to. If only you children knew...if only you had seen the blood on my hands and the broken ice all around the room that day!"

The chandelier was swinging as her voice rose as if connected to a part of her soul.

Izuku had shrunk down in his chair with his hands over his head, fearing that it would shatter on his head at any moment.

Her voice was shrill. Incredulous. To Tenya, who had until now envisioned this woman as something of a goddess of grace and beauty, it was made clear to him how she may have once been seen as a danger to those around her. Not to mention how that instability would have grown with how her depression at being locked away gradually took its toll on her.

He forced his head down and bowed deeply, his voice low and regretful as he responded. "I'm sorry, this is your home, I should have known better than to impose my views on you."

"Oh no, you're forgiven. I can't be mad at you for simply having an opinion."

Pin-drop silence followed.

The tranquility and composure in which she spoke of was just as impressive as it was alarming. Izuku looked into her now visible grey eyes for any sign of the lingering anger, unable to find even the slightest trace of it.

Her emotions were clearly out of her control.

"Ah...Is something wrong?" Ochako leaned solicitously into the room, using the door frame as a means of hiding.

"Nothing at all, why would you think that?" Miss Todoroki seemed genuinely puzzled, her head tilting cutely, though the atmosphere for the two boys had sunk to a level they couldn't recover from.

Both were acutely aware that she may snap at any moment.

Ochako skipped in happily, blissfully unaware of the change in tone. "I just heard some shouting, did Deku say something?"

"Deku huh, I like that." The silver-head extended her hand, placing it lightly on a green head to feel his hair, the look in her eyes akin to love. He tried not to shiver, holding his breath tightly. "Did you come up with that yourself?"

She turned back to Uraraka, her expression as if she had never been angry in the first place. It made both boys wonder struggle to believe that had been real, wondering how someone so loving could ever have such a side to her.

"No actually...hm...as far as I know I've always just called him that, where did it come from?"

Green eyes lingered on the silver charm bracelet hanging from the wrist of the hand that rested on Ochako's brown locks.

"Kacchan." He whispered quietly, the answer somehow a common knowledge to him that he wasn't even aware of. He couldn't remember the story behind the origin if he tried.

"Hmm. You are around fifteen aren't you Ochako-san?"

"Yes, that's exactly right. How could you tell?"

"Truthfully I thought you were thirteen, but it's quite uncommon for children that age to travel with friends."

Izuku felt an inexplicable apprehension in his stomach at seeing the way she played with Ochako's hair. He wondered if it was protective fear of her. Then he wondered if Tenya felt it too.

The knight cleared his throat as if jelous, and opened his mouth to speak. "I'm also fifteen, though I look much older, which is handy for travelling."

He leaned towards her, the movement subtle, but the craving in his eyes was clear, like a child desperately seeking the attention of their parent.

"I can see that. You're all children!" She took the bait and smiled lightly, her hand leaving Ochako's to land on his head too. Izuku felt the lurch even stronger this time. _Could she be... reciprocating his feelings?_

"How old are your children ma'am?" Tenya asked inadvertently grasping Izuku's attention, as well as giving him a favour.

"Well, the oldest would be an adult in her mid twenties now." Her gaze returned to Ochako, smiling from the corners of her eyes as well as lips. Izuku breathed in.

"My second should be just starting out into a career, in his early twenties, while the third is just finishing his education."

Her head tilted to Iida. Izuku's stomach clenched.

"As for my youngest," When her eyes turned to him and revealed all the mesmerising beauty and sadness of a mourning woman, he gave an involuntary gulp that was silenced only by the dangling sound of her bracelet as her hand reached out and brushed the top of his head again with so much gentle affection his stomach burned with butterflies with stingers on their wings taking flight inside of him. "He would be fifteen now like you."

The pressure of her love was too much for Izuku's gaze to hold. He stood up abruptly with his knees jerking the table clumsily. A glass that would have smashed rested snugly against the snow white palm of a hand that had arrived their mysteriously efficiently, with the person they belonged to looking up at him smiling eerily without even watching to see where the cups were.

He felt like he was going to break.

"Kacchan." He spoke loudly. "We forgot to tell you about Kacchan."

"Kacchan? Is this another friend of yours, will he be coming here?" Izuku could see right through her intentions as if her eyes were pure glass. To have three boys and one girl... would be more than perfect to a woman missing just these children.

"Not exactly," Ochako explained, posture relaxed and almost gravitating towards the older woman, much like the similarly entranced Tenya.

"The truth is, the reason we came to this castle is due to the claimed sightings of large white animals around this location at night."

"I think I might have seen something!" Her silken voice soothed.

"Really?" Iida's eyes gleamed the way Izuku's did whilst hearing stories of brave fighters and soldiers, perhaps even brighter.

"Yes. Do you like animals Tenya-kun?"

He seemed perilously delighted by her used of his first name. Izuku pleaded silently for them to break away from her and get out of here. His uneasy instinct was beseeching him.

"Not all, but the Silver wolves we're looking for are by far the most fascinating thing I've seen in my life. Katsuki is believed to be among them hence why Izuku and Ochako joined us. For me however, I'm following just for the sheer thrill of being able to see one. It's said that their magic can render a human useless, and their white fur shines brighter than the moon and stars themself."

Todoroki brushed her silky silver-white hair of similar description back attractively with a low laugh that may have accidentally brushed against his friends' shoulders, making Ochako giggle as Izuku sank in a pool of realisation, all of Tenya's uncharacteristic silence making sense now.

 _This could not be happening. Was she using magic to charm them? If that was the case, why wasn't it working on him? Was it something to do with him being quirk-less? Maybe it was like the wolves - maybe she was the wolf transformed trying to eat them!? Her whole story could have been a lie constructed by her, they didn't know if she was telling the truth, maybe there was another reason she was locked away, and she really was a dangerous criminal? Of course she would say she'd seen the wolves...anything to keep them here a little longer!_

"Deku...You're mumbling..."

The boy stopped, heart stopping to see all three heads turned and staring right up at him. "Have I been speaking out loud!? O-oh I apologise, I apologise, I apolo-"

A rich laughter broke out, that could only belong to one woman. Soon after, the others were laughing too, Ochako grinning and batting her hand in his direction. "He does these all the time, it's an old habit of his."

The green haired laughed fakely. He looked up from his bow while they were busy to stare into the grey eyes of the possible non-human suspisciously, having no idea how much of his thoughts she had heard.

"Miss Todoroki," He spoke curtly, though still trying to maintain an inconspicuous amicability. "If you could please tell us about what you saw, we really should be going."

Her smile melted, her face so straight it played with the senstive nerves in Izuku's fearful frame.

"Certainly." She glided out of her seat with so much elegance it put the most prestigious of queens to shame. Her movements were silent and graceful as the wolves had been the night they changed his life as she placed herself before the large stained glass window and pulled a lever that hoisted it up to reveal a view of the larger island they called home. The field and rocks they had seen were brought into clear vision, as well as so much more from this height.

Ochako and Tenya gasped, heading towards her as if magnetised, meanwhile Izuku's eyes widened and his jaw hung at the beautiful view of moss-like trees, distant charcoal coloured mountains in a part of the island he had never ventured to and so many interesting hidden lumps of colour between trees he could stare forever.

"Every night for the past three years or so, I've noticed something white lingering on that spot and sitting still through the glass windows. It was always too dark to see the details, and far too frightening in the dead of night for me to go and see what it was. At first, I would lie in my bed and listen to the sound of the door, terrified that whatever it was would come into the castle. Whenever people visited at night, I would show them and beg them to do something about it. However, over time, I found that it hasn't gotten any closer, so it no longer bothers me."

"Do you think, it could be a wolf?" Tenya looked away and back towards Izuku for the first time since they had met the lady.

He was keen not to let the opportunity pass by, locking eyes with him in all severity as he spoke.

"We should go and see for ourselves" He emphasised on the 'go' part, hoping the intention was conveyed.

"If you wish to see it you're more than welcome to spend the night here."

Todoroki's voice came suddenly, as if not wanting Tenya pondering. Intentionally and successfully ending his thought process. Just like that, with only a single sentence from her, Iida was turned away from Izuku without catching the warning, locking eyes with the danger and nodding in agreement.

No.

"We would be delighted since we spent most of the day travelling."

No.

He decided, displaying only a speck of the authoritive team captain role he had taken on.

No.

"Excellent, I'll go and prepare you the other bedrooms!"

 _This couldn't end well._

* * *

 **Don't hesitate to tell me what you thought of the chapter! You reviewers have so far been beyond great.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

While the adventurers sheltered behind the closed doors of the castle, eating to their hearts' content and sharing stories with their delightful host, the outside sun had faded into dusk, now leaving them in complete darkness, hoping to catch as much sleep as they could before they set out for the evening to check on the traps they'd laid out prior in hopes of catching a silver wolf.

With that in mind, rest was vital. And now was the time to rest.

Despite this, for reasons that were obvious, Izuku Midoriya was restless in the foreign bed, unable to enjoy that it was the first place he'd sleep in other than his own home or appreciate the fact that the queen sized bed was in fact fit for a queen.

He paced around the neatly organised room, cringing at the fact that Ochako's bedroom was in the second tower of four, painstakingly close to the first where their ominous host slept as well painfully far from his. This location in the third tower meant he'd have to walk through the entire third level to reach her if the need arose. Even if he were to sprint it would take several minutes. If he were to yell or she were to scream, would their cries even reach each other?

Unable to remain stationary for a single other second, he slipped out of his room and into the darkness of the narrow, barely supported hallway structure, metres above any ground he'd stood on before - not that he noticed this with his eyes dead set ahead of him in the blackness. This straight, narrow, eerie black path lead to the parallel tower. The tower where Iida, who he was desperate to see currently slept.

As his footsteps became loud, and the dragging of his feet in the silence spurred his tensions and anxieties on, he was expecting the owner of the castle to penetrate his blurry black vision with her glowing white hair at any moment, demanding why he was awake and shattering his crystal so he was left blind to even his own feet. Would her hair glow in the dark? Would her eyes? Would she transform into a wolf and gobble him up in slience?

He clung to his light crystal with all his might and practically threw himself into the knight's room without knocking, slamming the door shut behind him, surprised to find the lights on and the said boy sitting at a desk with his book open and a quail in his hand looking confused.

"Izuku-kun, is something the matter? You look afraid?"

He dropped his pen and stood, but Izuku hushed him fereverently, despite being aware that they were miles from the girls, he didn't want to be heard.

"We need to talk."

A painful explanation and presentation of evidence later, and all he received in turn was an otherwise calm laugh.

 _"You think she's a silver she-wolf in disguise trying to eat us?"_

"Yes! Didn't you see the creepy way she put her hands on our heads and compared us to her children? I'm sure that after this night, she'll insist on another, and another and then before we know it we'll be trapped here forever under some charm."

"So we remind her of her children, what exactly is so bad about that?"

Izuku faltered. "Maybe she wants us to replace them or... I-I can't explain it, but I know what I felt. I don't think we should trust her, or at the very least, I think we should keep caution. Even if it turns out to not be the case, she's been locked away for being dangerous. We have to remember that."

"I understand, but honestly, I think you've heard too many exaggerated campfire stories of bravery and not seen enough of reality yourself. Get some sleep. We don't have much time left until we have to go out."

That may have been true. Just the memory of Bakugo Katsuki and his now broken group of friends who had become hunters was enough evidence of that.

The green haired boy breathed in and settled down, but remained by Tenya's side until the boy finished his fanatical journalism and turned off his lights. He hadn't been invited to stay, but he remained leaned on the wall in the corner with his eyes down and his feet poking our anxiously until Tenya finally couldn't handle it any longer.

"What exactly do you think is going to happen, she's going to turn into a wolf and devour Ochako? Do you think she'll howl and call all the wolves here to eat their prey?"

Much like before, the boy's words did the opposite of alleviating the situation. Izuku as left pale.

He sighed loudly, bringing his face to his palm in regret. "Midoriya-kun, come over here."

His eyes lit up very slightly, walking over with caution and standing by the end of the bed where Tenya was sat up under the covers in a full set of blue Pyjama's including a night hat.

"If you are so concerned, I will cast an orb to show Miss Todoroki's bedroom."

"What! No! We can't do that- it's a complete invasion of privacy, it's disrespectful and it's w-wrong!"  
His cheeks burned completely scarlet, wheras the knight's where only dusted with the subtle evidence that he had wanted to cast the spell for his own intentions as well.

"I know that very well." He pushed up his glasses to hide his blush. "But I thought since you were so afraid that it would be a comfort to you. Whatever then. I guess not."

"Ah," Izuku groaned, face flushing fully bright from the sin that he was about to commit. "Go on then. But just Ochako."

He only said this because his knowledge of Tenya's more than loving admiration for miss Todoroki made the situation feel nefarious and guilt ridden already.

"Ochako's room then...excuse me, it isn't an easy spell to cast when I haven't been in the room before."

Tenya closed his eyes and removed his glasses, placing them on his lap, and extending his hand as if it were holding an imaginary orb.

He visualised the journey out of this room and down the stairs in great detail, the orb forming in his hands surrounding by an indigo glow as Izuku watched in wonder at the indistinct movements taking shape, as if it were displayed from the eyes of somebody walking down the path.

In some places, the image became suddenly blurry or tenebrous, only to return to full resolution the second later and flicker between these stages for several moments, until they finally appeared outside the door to a large room. They pushed into it to see a hunched up black and white figure in the bed.

A strange word came from Iida's mouth in an inaudible mumble, and then, like a lit flame, the image took colour and light to show Ochako curled over blissfully undisturbed in her bed with her mouth open and a bit of drool released from her small smile.

He breathed a sigh of relief, placing a hand suconsciously over his heart to see her peacefully out of harms way.

"See Midoriya-kun, there is absoloutely no problem he-"

Tenya was cut short and gave a startled cough as Izuku glanced down at the orb frantically to see what was so alarming.

Even though the inhabitant was clearly asleep, she had somehow attracted a visitor in the dead of night who wore a thin strapped white nightdress and strolled into the room with a glowing crystal in her hand. His throat, heart and every nerve constricted in anguish, no longer able to differentiate speculation from reality now that one of his fears had crossed over.

"Why isn't she leaving!?"

Izuku made a bolt for the door, but Tenya's grasp around his wrist stopped him sharply. "I have to get to her."

"Listen Midoriya-kun, if anything happens I'll teleport us both over there in a fraction of the time running will take. But we can't just make assumptions."

He turned back sharply to say accuse the teen of wanting to watch only for his perverted selfishness, only to stop at the severity and honesty on the knight's square features.

Izuku nodded silently, his grip being freed as he glanced down anxiously, revealing that Miss Todoroki was now walking beyond the sleeping girl and towards the wide stained glass window parallel to her.

She leaned over and opened it, looking out with her arm on the window anxiously. "What is she...?"

"Is she calling the wolves in to attack!?" Izuku whispered, his words clashing on top of his friends as his grip on the bedsheets became tight.

Iida wanted to tell Izuku to put an end to his doubtful talk, but the way things were going now, his evidence against him wasn't looking so good.

It was after a full three minutes of staring that the woman stopped and closed the window again, glancing at Uraraka's helplessly vulnerable form in a way that was so unreadable and open to the interpretations of the two, neither boys could look away.

Then finally, the silver head looked away and shook ahead. She walked behind Ochako's bed and pulled out a bottle of an elixr, taking a sip before returning it to it's cabin and walking towards the door, out of the orb's view.

"Make it face her!" Izuku commanded.

Iida waved his hands to make the portal turn, his eyes closing again only to reveal a pair of cool grey eyes looking up right at them through the orb as though she could see exactly what they were doing.

Both had their breath caught in their throats. They were unable to look away. Unable to speak. Unable to do anything but stare as she shook her head disapprovingly and closed the door behind her.

A universal exhale signified the end of the torment, as Tenya twisted his palm and destroyed the orb completely into a handful of purple fog that soon faded into air.

"C-could she see us just now?" Izuku whispered, disbelief making his voice difficult to hear.

"Impossible. I-It can't be, the entire point of the spell is to spy undetected. The fact that she saw us... maybe she is a wolf."

"No. I think I was wrong about that."

Tenya glanced up, startled at being disproven the moment he finally agreed to the green haired's theories.

"If she was a wolf, the spell wouldn't have worked at all. Whatever she is however, she is dangerous. Whether we can trust her or not though is unclear."

"Izuku-kun..."

"Tenya, no matter what happens from here on out, the three of us are leaving tomorrow, got that?"

The authority held a wisdom behind it that even the most experienced of knights had to respect. Despite the fact that he was the one with all the plans and all the knowledge, Tenya found himself humbly agreeing, even if he was fascinated by the older woman.

"Do you promise."

"Yes. That's a promise. Knight's honour."

For the first time that night, Izuku felt the true relief of having a friend to rely on against the word of the silver haired castle owner.

He returned to his room and blinked into a deep sleep. When he opened his eyes, it felt like not a second had passed, and yet Tenya was in his room fully clothed in his weapons, looking down at him with serious, calculating eyes that he hadn't yet seen.

"It's time."

* * *

After another sickly experience with a Recipro Burst and an anti-gravity spell they reached their destination. Now in the dead of night, where the cliffs felt so much steeper, the water sounded so much wilder and the vast land even wider than it had felt when they had first emerged from the forest and watched Ochako skip and somersault around it.

At present, he was crouched down in an underground crevice where the boulder above prevented anything from getting in until Ochako reversed the gravity on it to kick it away. They waited as their eyes peeked out from the darkness; bodies pressed together closely and their breathing erratic with anticipation, fear, and for Izuku, an almost crushing stress making it hard to stay still.

They were going to see the wolves. The wolves that had taken Kacchan, as well as the lives of his three classmates right before his eyes.

At least this time he wasn't alone. Ochako was with him to protect him, and their hands held onto each other tightly. However, the same could not be said for Iida who was all alone and all exposed behind a tree, where an attack from the wrong angle could render him a target.

Izuku could only he pray he was more professional than his village hunters had been. After all, the teen hadn't seen a white wolf since he was a child.

With no indication of when the wolves where coming, or if they were coming at all, Izuku struggled to keep his eyes open, his head falling and dropping only to shoot back up alert for a maximum of thirty seconds in a cycle every few minutes. His eyelids were heavy, sleep calling him beseechingly. _As if he would want to leave his friends to face this alone._

About an hour later, a sound was heard. It was distant, not to mention uncharacteristic of the enigmatically silent silver wolves he'd encountered before, but in a silence where only the wind and crashing seas whispers where loudest, it was a sound nonetheless, and one that was getting louder, as if an animal was getting closer.

Izuku's stomach clenched. Ochako's eyes sharpened in the darkness, her hand clenching around the palm in hers, as Iida leaned against the tree trying to hide the fact that he was sweating profusely with anticipation.

The dark, narrow pathway into the forest wasn't helping either, so he closed his eyes and envisioned it, as the foot steps clicked towards him, an imaginary row of wolves bounding in closer and closer, stepping out of the forest and into the wide space, there was no pause to look around for landmarks, as familiarity slowed down the pace of the audible footsteps. The distant sound of human soles touching the floor in a jump making him think of the supposed wolf boy that rode on their backs.

Izuku dared let himself be emboldened. He peeked out of the corner of his eye, and when he did, what he saw was definitely white, a white so vivid and luxury, that his body acted on impulse and adrenaline, snapping his fingers and making the signal.

"Gravity:off!" Ochako kicked the rock off of them in seconds and returned it's weight just as it hit the ground, the very earth shaking wildly and throwing them off balance as the ground split open and the gleaming white animal plummeted down into their trap, Izuku's net falling over to create a temporary cage under the ground.

"Woohoo! That actually worked!"  
"We did it!"

"Now we can ask it for Kacchan!"

Izuku stumbled out of the hiding place, whereas Ochako practically flew.

All three teens skipped over to the net, peering down at they hole they had dug as a trap only to meet unnamed mismatched us, and the cramped, fallen figure of a white horse sprawled out against the tight walls painfully.

Their jaws hung open, the last thing they were expecting to see was a human.

"AH! That's not...!"  
"Get them out!" Ochako panicked nervously, stumbling around to play with the pins trapping the net to the ground as the cold eyes glared up at them superciliously.

"Do we get them out?!" Iida wondered. "W-Why on earth was this man watching miss Todoroki's window every night for the past year?"

"What did you say?"

All three frightened adventurers eyes glanced back shocked at the terse, vitriolic voice demanding from far closer than they had expected.

Izuku gave a start, Ochako falling to the floor and Tenya bolted backwards several feet away. Below them, where the proudly wide and deep trap they had dug once was, a sharp, barely controlled shard of ice poked out. This landed their prisoner and his perturbed horse above the ground, with the last traces of their proudly crafted net burning away into nothingness before their eyes at the sides of the young man's feet.

A pair of green eyes gawked, having never seen such opulent clothing since... his eyes glanced back towards the castle, and then back at the boy before him with the brightest heterochromatic eyes he had ever seen, the most unique asymmetrical brushed hair and a prominent red scar surrounding one of the eyes that looked down on them like peasants in the darkness.

It took only one glance and he knew.

"Y-you're the fourth prince."

"What!?" Ochako buzzed.

"Todoroki Shouto- wait...that means...!"

Tenya was the second to notice, hopping up towards them in an instant.

"Huh?! You're telling me the prince is Miss Todoroki's fourth son?" The brunette exclaimed glancing around at her friends as she remained sat on the floor looking up.

"Which means she was the Queen the whole time?!" All three of them snapped.

The boy, Todoroki Shouto glanced aside and placed one hand on the head of his nuzzling horse, clicking his teeth and frowning in annoyance.

"Whoever you people are, explain this to me. Now. Before I get annoyed."

When his amber hair on one side flew up, and literal flames caught their attention, they knew he wasn't playing, falling into a natural obedient stuttering as they each took it in turns to explain to the future ruler of their island in their own different ways.

"One at a time." He demanded, not sounded quite so angry anymore as he rolled his eyes and pointed his finger towards a certain quirk-less boy's chest. "You. Explain to me."

Izuku's mouth hung open like a toddler at the dentist.

The prince was not happy with this, glaring his stange eyes as he spoke calmly, "Who are you people, what is your relation to my mother and why on earth are you setting traps outside of her home?" He bit.

"T-The truth is we're travellers who only met her this afternoon as we stumbled on her castle and she offered us a place to stay. We don't mean any harm to you or her... it's just that when she said she saw a white animal here, we thought she was talking about the animals we're looking for. You see, we're on a quest..."

Not knowing how much detail to give, or at all how to read the arcane, still features of the boy who wasn't unsimilar to his mother, the traveller trailed off uncertainly.

"If you don't mind me saying this," Ochako hopped up onto her feet as if she weighed nothing, standing eye level with his neck but somehow seeming not intimidated by him as she questioned, "Why do you let your mother be lonely and still come here every night without even saying hello?"

His eyes darkened, Izuku grabbed his friend's shoulders ready to pull her back behind him into safety if necassary and let himself be the one burned, but the flames never came.

Instead, a wavering low voice uttered, "Since you seem to know this much already, there's no harm in telling you that like her, I too have been cursed by my father so I'm stopped from entering the castle by a power that's _stronger_ than my own."

"That's ridiculous, why don't you tell your father that you want to see her! He doesn't have right to keep you away from her."

Ochako's surprisingly overwhelming bravery was noted by her companions, who were comparatively hushed with trepidation.

"My father is the king. Ethics don't matter with him, and no reasoning ever will sway him."

"He doesn't sound very king like to me."

Iida made a sound that was sort of like a deflated balloon, Izuku bowed down several times in apology and held onto her hood to pull her behind him.

Much to their surprise however, the prince was not angry, rather, he seemed pleasantly surprised by her honesty, as he placed a hand very lightly on Izuku's shoulder and declared, "No bowing please, we're outside of the castle."

Izuku stared up in wonder. Evidently, the boy held several prince like qualities that set him apart from others. He was charismatic, powerful, domineering and regally out of Izuku's world. And yet, he had a personality, a clear love for his horse and a clear resentment for his father, and a shyness that kept him away from his mother that made him so fascinatingly human to Izuku, who after having only heard stories had been expecting something more supernatural and story book like.

He smiled lightly to himself as he looked towards the boy, perhaps finally understanding Ochako and Tenya's infaturation with the Queen they had met prior.

"I agree. Our king is an underserving ruler," he added smoothly, "and an even more appauling parent."

He held out his hand towards the distant castle that looked like an inapproachable otherworldly structure of black that was out of his reach, solemnly clenching his fist before he pulled himself gracefully up onto his horse.

"I shouldn't be here. I'll be returning to my hiding place before I'm dragged back to the dreaded castle." He clenched his teeth.

 _That was right, the prince had ran away recently after a fight with his father, though a lot of the stories he had heard had covered up the truth by blending in their own juicy stories into the mix._

"One question," Right when they thought the incredibly thick tension had been broken, the boy turned back to them and asked boredly, "What's a knight of east doing in a southern territory?"

Before Ochako and Izuku could even voice their confusion, Tenya stammered out a stumped sound, "H-how could you tell so easily?"

His choking received no sort of response as a reward.

"I promise you, your majesty I'm not here as a knight but as an adventurer intending no harm. L-Like yourself I'm here to escape my unwanted expectations." He bowed straight, his words barely making sense to anyone other the the entertained prince who let his lips smirk in a very slight fashion.

"Very well then."

He kicked his horse and made to leave. But by then, Izuku had broken free of his trance like state of analysis and freed his burried confidence to talk directly to the boy.

"Wait!" He jolted forward and skidded by, startling the tamed animal into a halt at the beckon of its master.

"Yes?"

Much to Izuku's delight and surprise, the prince didn't appear irritated in the slightest. His expression hardened in the same fixated determination.

He only had one chance, so he had to phrase this right. Not ignite a repeat of their encounter with the angered Queen as they had done earlier.

"Will you be here tomorrow?"

Shouto looked taken aback, but he shook his head solemnly as an answer, "No. Tomorrow I will be..." His eyes darkened, the skies seemed to follow with his emotions too as his powerful magic released into the air and practically strangled the three as he glared in obvious anger, unaware of the effects it caused, "..busy."

"Then I'm sorry but you can't leave!"

"What?" Ochako chimed with the prince this time, Tenya swinging his arm up and down like a lecturer.

"Midoriya-kun please think carefully about what you're planning."

The startled face of the prince urged him to continue on apologetically in a haste,"Not to be rude, but I won't let you go without solving the problem here as it is."

Izuku stated resolutely, striking his fist into his palm.

"Problem?" The young prince pondered.

"Your mother is depressed and wishes to see you. Her misery is an inconvenience to us, and your hesitancy to visit her has left her so lonely that if we were to leave her alone (which we'll have to in order to fulfil our purpose) we'd only feel guilt."

Izuku bent at the waist and politely requested, "Come this way please."

Abashed, the prince hopped down to their level and allowed Izuku to lead him with suprising willingness and the patient obedience of a well disciplined child. The green eyed teen tried not to mimic his friend's surprised gawks at the strange thrill of leading the future ruler of their country by the palm.

"If you try to take me into the castle, It won't work." He stated blandly.

"I thought so, in that case," He bowed politely in front of Tenya and asked him to create a portal into her room.

"Eh!?" Tenya flushed, his thoughts clearly straying, but he immediatley obeyed and created one, watching in knowing awe as Izuku charged into the swirling mass of violet with the prince's palm still in his hand.

They watched awed as the portal flared and slammed shut in the boy's face, sending off a bright spark much like a firework in their faces that threw the startled Prince onto the floor.

"I-I apologise on behalf of-"

"It'a alright." Todoroki accepted the hand extended towards him and dusted his expensive clothing off, staring up at the single square of light now emitting from the very top of the castle where his mother must have been staying.

* * *

"Izuku!" She exclaimed sharply, the light's snapping on as if reacting to her surprise as she sat up in her blankets and rushed to help him up where he had hit the floor hard.

The quirkless teen glanced down at his empty hand and cursed, eyes lighting up in nervous excitement as he took in the sight of the concerned, childless mother before him.

"M-Miss Todoroki," He declared, voice slightly shaken from the elation of using magic, her eyes softened with the same fondness that had once disturbed him. "What if I were to tell you that your son is waiting for you right now outside, wanting to see you?"

His words affected her like a bomb had been dropped. His smile dropped off of his face as her eyes blackened with anger, her hair rising up around her like tentacles in an ocean he was cursed to sink to the bottom of at the mercy of the otherworldly force of her power.

His lungs choked at him with shock, regret stinging him, pain and fear rendering him useless and confused.

And then, it broke. Her anger crumbled, the ice that had collected around her hitting the floor and smashing into shards as she brought her hand to her head to hide her terribly agonised expression.

"I wouldn't believe you." She whispered, uncharacteristically weak.

"Then, you'll just have to see for yourself."

Izuku handled her frail wrists with far more care than the younger prince, and lead her slowly and cautiously to the window as though she had just aged into an old lady. He unclasped the window, pushing it out, and pointing downwards towards the blurry white horse and the three figures beside it looking up in the darkness.

"There do you s-"

Words melted away.

His green eyes softened, watching as the Queen's astoundingly wide orbs stilled and focused. Rampant trembling consumed her hands, topped with wet tears spilling over her ageless face like raindrops, and down into her words as she whispered with the delight of a starving child in the face of food; a blind animal in the glow of light; a deaf composer hearing the tingle of music for the very first time.

 _"Shouto"_

* * *

 **This was probably a plot twist everyone saw coming BUT it brought Shouto to the story so...meh. As long as he's here XD**

 **Please tell me what you thought and any possible ideas you might want me to include~**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Miss Todoroki could remember the exact moment her son had been born.

Her eyelids, one purple and swollen, the other teary had made it hard to blink. Despite the despicable luxury of the castle bed, a recent burn on her shoulder left her stinging. Her five year old fire quirked son had caused that. But it was the first sign of his power, so she had let it slide.

Besides, she had established a high tolerance for pain. The current ache tearing through her numbed in the face of the brutality of child birth itself. A demeaning, cold, royal-blue gaze bore down on her from above, yet it felt like it was looking through her. There was no hand to squeeze onto, no comfort. She had to fight through this unaided.

Through every drop of sweat, every jerk of pain and every convulsion in her muscles she endured.

She felt she had died by the time the pain had died down. Yet somehow, when that first cry sang out, it was music to her ears that lit her grey vision.

The sweat burnt; hands feebly clinging to the bed sheets as unconsciousness clawed at her. Eagerly, yearningly, she debated accepting the call.

But a gentle, nourishing glow seemed to save her, as Shouto's first cries entered her ears. A boy. She'd thought, somehow knowing right away and letting a small tug of relief sound from her lips.

She could remember the exact moment she had laid eyes on him. She could recall the precise moment everyone in the room had.

A dark chuckle, followed by an elated gasp. An incoherent mumble from one of the many overbearing nurses, doctors and midwives in the room.

The reactions remained the same right up until - until she had last seen him. They complimented his eyes, his hair, his ethereal beauty and his royal grace. They said he looked born to be a king. Somehow, that statement always saddened her.

Breathless, teary eyed, exhausted and frail. She remained waving her arms at the edge of her bed for what felt like an eternity, watching as others crowded her baby, her creation and holding him before she even had a chance to see his smile.

She remembered a voice like sand escaping her throat, ignored like a bug of no significance.

On the true verge of passing out again, she was just about ready to believe she'd never see her child.

And that's when Shouto was put into her arms. The weight, the warmth, it all registered behind closed eyelids. Her suffering ended. Realisation her her chapped lips forming a circle, eyes falling on pure beauty. All the suspense in the world couldn't have made the moment more perfect. Her cries stopped in her throat, the room fell silent. The sun exhaled into the room, bathing the tiny, wailing creature in her arms with a halo of light.

His body was tiny and curving hands tinier, golden light blinded her to all else bustling around her. His expression softened, his breathing calmed and quivering lip stilled.

Finally, she felt the pride intended at not taking the pain-killing potion. Finally, the constraints of her identity slipped away. A gorgeous mismatched pair of eyes, unlike anything she'd ever seen before greeted her. It was her baby boy. Red and white eyelashes, black and blue irises. They were two mirrors, no emotions, opinions or understanding. Just acceptance.

For the first time in years, the queen laughed.

Her smile slipped right up to the corners of her sobbing eyes. All else was still, and somewhere far away, an ice cage melted. Love cradled her in its arms the way she cradled her son until the moment the King came and cradled his son away from her.

This was exactly like that.

Uncontrollable, unnoticed tears had stained her face before she could cry out. The first syllable of his name choked her, but she kept shouting until her throat clenched up. He was here. Here but not here. The same son, but still so different.

Night's darkness resembled her blindness at his birth. It basked him in light, lying to her. This was not the palace in daylight where she could put her arms around him and kiss his hair with freedom.

This was a morning as black as her castle's bricks and husband's soul. His will imprisoned her here, rendering her useless.

She wished she could hold him, cry into his hair so hard her tears became a spell to protect him. Not watch idly with her jaw open and the cage around her heart hacking apart under the brutal swish of an axe.

Izuku watched in silence, lip between his teeth. Adrenaline had tears piling in the corner of his eyes, hands shaking. Everything about the Queen eerily stilled but the constant flow of silent tears.

After several seconds, painful twitches of her fingertips joined. It was like she was fighting against the invisible wall binding her.

Fighting whilst frozen.

"Miss Todoroki..." He spoke, feeling like he was begging a book character not to make a bad decision. He was shouting at the lifeless pages of a broken mind.

"Miss Todo-"

"Fifteen," She whispered, sounding like the voice of a completely different woman. Her head tilted towards Izuku to clarify.

It was a fluid movement, unnoticeable had he not been watching alert the whole time.

"Y-yes?"

Her eyes remained out at the window, gazing at her child.

"He... he would be about fifteen now."

Once, when she'd had more life, she'd argued that her son was only five. To which her husband had responded 'he's already five.'

If he were here now, he'd be scoffing 'he's only fifteen'. She'd be the one clenching her fist to stop her heart from shattering completely. She would bite back ten times as maliciously as him, "He's already fifteen."

Izuku breathed out softly. It was an action to calm himself, but hoped it would reflect in her.

"He must look a lot different from the last time you saw him."

At this height, there was utter silence.

The teen was beginning to think he'd reached her. Seeking a civil conversation, he nearly bit through his lip as she flinched.

Effeminate hands became clawing nails - the only warning her had. "Why did you bring him here?"

Her head dropped like a mad woman. No longer supported, it hung and swayed like a broken doll. Her voice was the prowl of a dangerous animal.

"I didn't." He spoke with confidence. Confidence that didn't truly represent the emotions felt in his trembling body.

"Your son made his way here himself. To see you."

"He wouldn't do that- he... I HURT HIM!"

Her hands were flailing now, sharp gaze tearing away from the open hole in the wall to glare at him from under her hair. No. It wasn't him she was glaring at. Her expression gazed with resent but it wasn't directed towards anyone but herself.

"He would never come to see me, not unless I forced him to, not unless-"

"It's the truth."

"I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU! T-The only way he would still love me is if that was the only love he ever felt! If he's only treated so horribly in that castle...worse than I treated him so that's what his idea of love i-is. That's a thought that I cannot bare. Are you insisting my worst fear is REAL?"

"I'm so sorry but-"

Her head snapped up, eyes closed. "What did you think would achieve bringing him here? Did you think I'd somehow magically be able to talk to him? That it wouldn't only rip me apart to have him so close, just to remind me of how trapped I am? Or I get it, you want to convince me to leave this castle don't you? So I can help you with your mission and you can use this tower all for yourselves to-"

"But you can talk to him!"

Something burst within her. Or maybe it broke.

Her voice sounded deflated as she returned to a ghostly soft voice.

"I can't."

Challenging fears, he clenched her cold hands in his. "You can. I promise you can."

"How exactly?"

"I'll tell Ochako, she can make him float up to the window. You won't be able to touch him, but you'll be able to see him. From up close. His-his voice will reach without shouting and you can talk. Y-you want to see how he's doing right? You want to hear him speak."

"IZUKU. Izuku, Izuku, Izuku." She laughed, a melody. Throwing her head back, she ran a white silk-sleeved hand through her equally white silky hair.

Eerily, this reminded him of his mother, if only Miss Todoroki was more cute, fluffy, overprotective and caring in her melodrama and less... quixotic and perturbing.

"You think that after all these years locked up in here I haven't devised a way to see my precious child? You think I haven't checked up on him every night until he turned seven too afraid to whisper a word, watching him cry on his bed as I wished him happiness without the power to charm my words and ensure it?!"

Izuku was starting to think he had done something terrible. He was starting to think he should be running and fearing his life. Spending the rest of his days in miserable guilt at all the tears he had caused would be retribution enough.

Those tears had turned to snowflakes. Then, thin blades of ice that shattered into the floor with tiny ticking sounds.

He noticed this as he leaned back into the wall as far as he could from the menacing, delicate Queen.

"Do you know why I stopped?"

She leaned in towards him, trapping him. Her eyes were so wide he thought they would break. They could fall to the floor and shatter like ice much like her tears.

Green hair swished as he shook his head several times to say no.

"Do you think I could cope..."

Her grew orbs were very small. She backed up away from him, walking in a straight line backwards were all sorts of items could trip and hurt her.

"Miss Todo-" His voice had broken, he cleared his throat to lose the weak mewl, "Miss Todoroki!"

Her back finally reached the opposite end of the room, madness consuming her blind eyes. Muscle memory guided her body but simultaneously blinded her to the present.

He hand jabbed down with practised precision. From a wooden carved drawer, a flash of sharp and ominous silver glowed back at him from within her hand. It retreated towards her body, getting closer and closer.

"Miss Todoroki no!"

The tables had turned and now he was the one trying to chase her and back her into a corner. He fumbled forward, grabbing the item between pinched fingers. He felt the slap of cold metal, but no pinch of pain. It would likely hit him a while from now but as long as it was far away from her he would be content.

"What are you...?"

"Please... calm down this isn't the-"

But the knife wasn't a knife at all. Izuku looked down, breathing heavily from fear. Dumbfounded, he saw a silver and moonstone hand mirror, framing emerald eyes that looked up at him. Ornate gems and intricate carvings caused a chill to ripple through him. He knew instantly it wasn't ordinary.

"A mirror?" he balked, relieved and confused all at once.

Miss Todoroki was laughing. That was good...right?

"Oh sweety you tried to do something kind just now didn't you?" Her hand brushed passed his shoulder as she glided towards the window and took a seat. He hadn't realised she'd snatched it from him until he saw it glistening in her lap.

Izuku stared in apprehensive bafflement.

Once again, she'd switched her demeanour within a single tick of a clock. Head turned down, her fingers brushed the frame of her mirror like she'd hand carved it herself.

It was picturesque calm, as if it had been a pose constructed for a painting. The moonlight seeped in on her pale life. Only this time, the telltale wet lines running down her flawlessly pale face remained. It was the only hint that her tantrum had happened in reality. I reminded Izuku that he hadn't imagined the whole thing.

"Show me Shouto." She whispered, almost massaging the stones as if they could feel her.

Izuku had to scurry to her side, looking over her shoulder from a safe distance as a soft blue glow swirled in the glass.

His head jerked towards her, mouth wide.

Her eyes didn't move away, but the corner of her mouth became a soft smile.

The glow adopted a life of it's own. With each complete swirl, a new stone began to glow, a new colour added to the centre.

By the time all the stones illuminated, a picture had formed.

* * *

Shouto blinked up at the window, squinting in the darkness, barely able to see a thing.

The anxiety in his stomach told him this was a bad idea. But, his heart wanted him to stay.

He turned back to the pair whispering among themselves. Like most times of insecurity, he found his hands seeking out the mane of his horse, Shiro.

His eyes closed. This was taking long. The voices behind weren't making it any better.

"It's Deku you know. I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Yes, it's the Miss I'm worried about. Being able to handle such distraughting news..."

"...Hey," The girl's voice suddenly became much quieter, but he strained to hear her. "Is it just me or is the Prince's sword glowing?"

"Huh?"

"Prince Shouto your sword!" Iida panicked. His alarm was so loud it hurt.

But, the Knight wasn't wrong.

Shouto jerked into action at the terse change in volume. Yet, he calmed upon realising it was only glowing and not emitting any sort of heat, pain or sound.

Unsheathing it with brutal grace, a sharp, chilling and satisfying sound scraped out. The prince backed away from the others. He held his blade like it had a life of it's own, pointed far from his body.

"Stay back."

His body became a wall, sheltering them from possible offence.

With narrowed eyes, he eyed his own reflection in apprehension. But then, stopped in confusion to wonder when his eyes had become so... symmetrical.

It was then that the sword's soft laugh pierced his ears.

"M-Mother?"

His exterior stumbled, and his round eyes were looking ahead in innocuous surprise. His grip on his sword nearly faltered, but he clenched back with relish.

Fear and excitement crowded his thoughts.

"Shouto," She smiled, the sound more melodious than anything ever heard from the woman.

Her son looked back, stunned silent.

Izuku peeked in at the top of the former queen. Not long later, the other two adventurers peeked from behind the prince. Despite this, the mother and son acted as though they were completely alone.

Shouto explored the sword curiously. He turned it in his hands and found her face grinning gently still. She chuckled, allowing him to tilt and sway the sword, fascinated behind his stoicism.

"It's amazing to see you." She laughed proudly, "To hear your new voice."

Todoroki's mouth hung open, fighting back his blush as he met his mother's elated gaze. He nodded, bottom lip resting between his teeth.

"I-I wanted to see you."

"So have I baby."

"I'm sorry. I should have come sooner."

"Don't be, you're perfect. I'm the one who could have-" She swallowed, "Should have connected to you sooner through the mirror."

"Mirror?"

"It's something I made out of my ice espescially for you."

"To see me?"

"That's right."

Shouto swallowed, appearing small despite his strong stature and even more powerful charisma.

"Sorry. I probably look like the king-"

"Don't say that! You're perfect the way you are Shouto. I wish I had told you sooner, I wish you had never made you doubt that side of yourself. You're nothing like your father."

"The king. Please don't call him that."

Her breath hitched in her throat. The worst fears seeping into her. Bit. By. Bit. Her paranoia peaked around her son. It always had.

"Of course. The king."

There was a pause. A long pause where none of them spoke, or even looked right at each other.

Izuku wanted to say something, but somehow felt that nothing would be appropriate.

"Shouto, how is your- the king. How is the king? How is life at home?"

A thick tension hung in the air because everyone but the woman asking knew the answer. Her son had become a lost Prince months ago. He hadn't called their old castle his home in a long time; since even before he'd ran away to live elsewhere.

If he were to estimate, it became this prison about ten years ago.

The boy swallowed thickly.

"I won't endure him anymore."

"Oh?" She tried to laugh. She tried to play it off as paranoia. She knew this often led her to interpret meanings as worse than they actually were.

"No one will have to. Not after tonight."

His eyes shone resolutely.

She hoped that this was one of those instances. She wished she wasn't right.

"W-Why not?"

But it was plain as day. Everyone could see it, the darkness inside the Prince's eyes. The pain, the violence. The desire for revenge. The hatred. The light in the eyes wasn't optimism, it was recklessness.

The words that followed weren't at all a surprise.

"I'm going to erase all traces of that man from existence."

For a second, the Queen thought the sky was falling.

What followed blew the sky off it's hinges entirely. His hand reached up mindlessly to cover his scarred eye and blazing hair. His mother watched, watching these details to try and calm herself. She tried to prove herself wrong, tried to ignore what she knew was coming.

"And I mean all traces."

The scream that pierced their ears shocked them. It was loud, panicked, petrified and terrorised. Like a dying animal's cry. Like a victim of a stabbing.

She looked liked she'd seen a ghost. Like she'd seen hell, hair dishevelled, eyes trembling, hands shaking, heart racing. Her sons words repeated in her head, pounding, beating her. They stabbed her. She choked.

"NO! NO! NO! Shouto-Shou-"

He remained impassive, calm. "Your mirror lets you see me through my sword right?"

"Shou-"

His mouth was a perfect straight line. Terrifying. His eyes were dead, yet burning with resolve.

He was so much more frightening than his father.

"Any reflective surface baby, whatever's nearest to you." She sobbed, "I'll always see you no matter what so don't you dare do anything I would app-"

"Ah, then this will be quite problematic."

Shouto spoke heartlessly over her desperate plea. He threw his mother's throat into her heart as he disposed of his sword. He sent it tumbling to the grass, so far away, the image shattered. The blue light broke, leaving the screaming woman in utter, blind darkness.

The violent clang of the sound chimed around the room. It punctuated the finality of his final words, his voice radiating around the room. As if he were a ghost, a memory intangible to the present.

"I just wanted to say goodbye. That's all."

Her sanity shattered.

As Izuku watched in horror, he confirmed that he had failed. Terribly. His good intentions had crashed down on him, causing something utterly detestable.

If the Queen was broken before, she was in fragments now. Screaming, crying, her throat cracking with every painful whimper she forced out of it. Her hands stabbed into the floor, ice forming and breaking, forming and breaking.

He tried to reach her, but a wall of ice slammed into him. And then it crashed.

Every creation of hers died violently before it could even bloom to it's full intent.

She begged, but she was talking to herself.

Tears pricked at his eyes.

"PLEASE! PLEASE... save my baby...! If he dies I-I'll take my own life, I'll destroy the whole island. PLEASE! He's the only reason I'm still living...a-and he's about to d-AH!" She couldn't say it. The words world form.

Instead, he watched as she gripped her heart painfully in her nails as she choked into the floor a final plea.

"Please, save him."

* * *

 **What was this chapter TBH? What was that ending... I know it's not the best.**

 **Hi Readers! I know, my update schedule has been destroyed The only reason I'm updating now is because I'm on Christmas break and I have time. Once life continues, I doubt I'll be able to update again until after my exams (IN JUNE *sigh*) I'll try and get out as many as I can before that, so don't be alarmed if there are suddenly loads of chapters in the next few days and then none for a few months.**

 **Thanks for continuing to support this fic reviewers, I promise this story will go on.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

A body whipped by, breaking stray branches, crunching leaves below his feet.

The forest at night was cold. And Izuku was sprinting, sprinting so fast he could feel his heart in his throat.

With hair as green as the canopy above, the scene was almost lightless. He couldn't see anything more that three feet ahead of him. But despite this, he felt that whatever else lurking had a clear view of him.

His body slammed into a thick trunk.

"Oof!"

Recovering with hast, he gripped the arm he'd injured on instinct.

But now his body was thumping with pain as hard as his heart, and his breathing laboured and struggling.

Yet he continued running even as the branches scratched at his skin. As if he couldn't hear Ochako and Iida screaming at him from behind.

He had to reach the prince. He had to save him.

* * *

 _"Where's the prince?" Izuku demanded, landing in the clearing only to find emptiness. His two friends stood still, staring at a patch of mossy grass with nought but a sword on it._

 _The argument that had followed had been one briefly and immaturely ended by Izuku._

 _He'd rather not go into the details. It was the first fight he'd had with the knight and now of all times. Besides, it was one of those rarer occasions where Ochako's concerns had silenced her._

 _Guilt threatened to slice his throat. That's why he couldn't look the in the eye._

 _Izuku didn't have time for this, ditching any argument no matter how reasonable._

 _"He'll kill you...you'll kill yourself...you'll hurt yourself and you'll regret it." All hit his ears before bouncing back out unheard._

 _His brain heard this but his heart deafened him to logic._

 _It was what he had promised to do. There was no going back. The desperately hurting Miss Todoroki that had edged him on. She had held onto him tightly, begging that he stayed with her to stop her from killing herself. The second later, screaming that she would kill him unless he saved her son and fixed the mess he'd caused._

 _"I will find your son, even if it kills me."_

 _Of course he would. Because he was the one who had brought him to her. How could he listen to her cries, and not respond like the hero's in fairy tales would?_

* * *

If he'd minded his own business, she wouldn't be on the verge of suicide. He wouldn't be running in the opposite direction of Kacchan, of his other friends. He wouldn't be risking entering the most dangerous part of the entire kingdom.

Where intruders were killed on sight.

The only way he could redeem himself, would be by stopping the young Prince. They all knew what would happen if he tried to kill the king - he himself would die. Whether he brought the dictator with him out of this world, was debatable. But Izuku would avoid that risk at all costs.

He had to do this.

Ochako's arms pounced around him in a prison as the pair finally reached him and pulled him to a stop.

"G-Get off of me!" Screamed a half-hearted cry. Despite all his desperation, he was chasing a royal horse.

Not to mention, his friends were magic uses. Here he was hoping to out race them.

Yeah right. The Prince was nowhere near his sight. All he'd managed to succeed in was pissing off his friends and wearing himself out. His shoulder still stung from the scrape of a nettle.

"Deku listen- get a hold of yourself and listen! We can't catch the prince even if he tried while he's on horse. Not to mention the fact that we can't convince him once we do catch up to him! What are you gonna do, fight him? Then he'll only kill you!"

She was right, of course she was.

"He'll have to stop sooner or later!" Izuku countered regardless. Still trying to tackle her weight emphasised his weakness. As she used every ounce of her body to pin down and wrestle with his arms, he felt the sensation of crushing.

"And then?" She screamed into his face, slamming his obstinate head into the dry dirt. "If the guards don't murder you first the king definitely will-"

"We'll tell him we're preventing a plot to kill him-"

"Then shouto will kill you first!"

"Then we'll say the Queen sent us-"

"They'll both kill you idiot!"

"Look, we'll think of something for now it's import that we just-"

"And if something's as stupid as your other suggestions we're all dead! Is that what you want, us dying to save you?!"

"Then leave me!"

"DEKU!" If a voice could manifest and slap someone, his cheeks would burn red with abuse.

"How can you say that!? How can you demand I leave you when I promised your mother I would bring you safely back to her?"

Izuku's delusion came crashing down on him, turning his limbs limp.

Suddenly his body turned. The fierce hazel eyes above him were as poignant in their power as him. Ochako was in the same predicament, yet here he was boldly. No. Stupidly, pathetically, throwing his life away to save somebody else's mother. He hadn't even spared a thought to consider his own.

The voice responding became weak, fresh tears of helplessness spilling from his eyes. It didn't sound like him at all. He swallowed.

Shouto must be half way to the castle by now.

"I'm sorry." He grumbled. "I...I... really wanted to save him."

"I know." Her voice was sombre, "I do too."

"I keep forgetting that this is reality. I keep forgetting that not every adventure's to be rewarded... and not everything will always go to plan. I thought if I brought him to his mother, everything would be okay, and now everything is ten times worse. If you hadn't stopped me, I would have run right into the King's castle. Things...Things would be a thousand times worse if I'd done that. I'd be dead and y-you would be too. All to stop some P-Prince we just met..."

"Izuku." Iida's voice grasped at the last shred's of his self control. They reached him before he lost himself to a river of tears. Back when he was a kid, crying had seemed to relieve all his problems. It was fighting them back that was the real struggle.

Now here he was, knowing after his teen years that crying got you know where. Despite this, he still wanted to sob. The knowledge didn't stop the pain, now he simply didn't know how to stop it when he was so damn useless.

"We...we still can save him."

Both head's turned up to gape at the Knight, shocked as he was so opposed to the idea before.

"Look, I know... I know I can be very goal oriented and I know that this for me has decreased my success rate. But I'm also well aware that there are other ways we can succeed than my own. In a group, success depends on our ability to trust and listen to each other. So,"

Iida stood up, kneeling as if about to sprint off in a race, legs beginning to flare with the powerful glow of his quirk.

"I'm going to trust that your intentions to save Shouto will not harm our end cause. My sole hope is that me offering to help now will redeem my rude behaviour up until this point."

He bowed his head with proud nobility, Izuku's smile hurting his cheeks.

"Of course," Wiping his nose on his sleeve, he leaped up into action. The familiar slap of Ochako's complete weightlessness hit him. Then, her hands were gripping his clothes, tight. He knew her strength came from more than the fear of him flying away alone.

Despite the tears still slipping into his eyes. He felt strong, opening his mouth to warn.

"I-Ida, watch out for TREEES!"

Then, they were moving.

The whirr resembled a portal. Within his first gasp, they'd flickered through miles. As blurs of black and green shadows passed, his tears sucked from his eyes.

The hoot of an owl somewhere across their path distorted into a peculiar gush from the sheer speed.

When they finally stopped, the wind had whipped Izuku's hair back. It was a makeover that left Ochako chuckling into his shoulder.

While his stomach jerked about, causing him to gasp and slump forward, he allowed her joy. He'd be smiling too if he were her.

It took several moments for them to realise that Iida hand't slowed to a complete stop. As his eyes remembered they could make sense of colours, a flash of white appeared.

Black exited the corners of his vision. It revealed that they were now jogging in time to a snow-white horse and the befuddled prince above it. He gripped his rains, his mouth an O.

He had been travelling with haste.

"Prince Shouto, if you would please-"

Shiro wailed, noticing the freaks of nature until this point. With legs kicking out, her prince had to tug her to a stop.

The adventurer's, whilst watching intently had charged right into a tree. It sent the three of them stumbling in various directions like skipped stones.

Ochako was the first gone. Releasing her hold on herself and Deku caused an abrupt weight change.

The green haired stumbled to a halt right before the hooves of the royal horse.

"Prince Shouto!" He declared, peeking up from under his legs. "Have you really stopped to consider what you're doing?"

His expression somehow resembled a question mark.

"I understand, that it's easy to feel compelled to do something so much you think it can't possibly go wrong. You think it's morally right, or justified, or in the God's plan so much that it can't fail, right?"

As he hoped, the prince nodded.

"I know that feeling. But sometimes... sometimes it takes the words of friend's to point out the potential risks. You think you're seeing it all, but that's the good thing about friends. They see from a perspective you may have never thought of."

Green flickered over to Ochako breifly, thankfully, before returning to the prince.

"Friends? But I don't have any friends?" He muttered, genuine contemplation over his features.

At least he was considerately listening unlike the stereotypical arrogant prince. Iida thought, knowing he'd had his fair share of dealing with those back in his knight days.

"That's why we tried so hard to catch up with you."

"S-So we can tell you." Ochako added, attempting to keep the other engaged.

"Well then, speak." He demanded.

"Ah," Izuku pushed every last bit of his brain to come up with something. "You see, the thing is that actually, after reading a lot of books-"

"Izuku."

Hearing his name in that disapproving tone from royalty made him yelp like a disobedient kid.

"You can't kill the king! He's too strong!" Iida ended up blurting, slapping a hand over his mouth.

"What he means is, the only thing that can kill him is t-the Sword of All a Soldier's Might!" Izuku muttered, as it was the first thing that came to his mind.

Instantly, the common history story appeared in all three of the human heads present. It explained story of the previous King; the strongest ruler of all time. Even to children, his greatness was unrivalled.

Unfortunately, he'd vanished at the end of his rein. Thought of as deceased, the next strongest claimed the thrown.

Abandoning the island, vanishing out of no where like Kacchan had... Thankfully, people regarded him highly even after this.

After all, he had forced the King of Dragon's into an eternal sleep. In the past, the dragon species had been a burden to humanity. Rumour had it the development of quirks came only due to efforts to counter them.

Referencing such a story, it was no surprise that Shouto's interest was theirs. "That's right.."

"So if you tried to fight him now, you'd only end up hurting yourself, which nobody wants." Izuku spoke in earnest.

"Then I need the sword."

"Which is exactly why you should come with us."

The turn of Ochako and Iida's head's towards him were sharp, but Izuku didn't waver. Shouto took his careful time before meeting the strange teen before him's gaze.

"And why is that?" He finally asked. It may have only been a few seconds of silence, but Izuku felt he had smashed through tension as thick as a glass mirror.

"Because we're going to find that sword. It's our quest."

The lie was a bold one, one that couldn't possibly end in anything good. But Izuku wouldn't think about that now. For the time being, all that mattered was showing this abused Prince what was worth living for in life.

Having him join them would give him plenty of opportunities to do exactly that.

Thankfully, his friends acted in accordance, showing they held no grudge. As long as Shouto benefited in the long term, all was okay.

"T-the boy we're looking for," Ochako started.

"Kacchan!" Izuku chirped by habbit.

"H-he knows where the sword is so o-once we find him we can get it."

"I don't understand, why would you be looking for the sword if you're so willing to give it up to me?"

"Well, the truth is we're not. I just want to find Kacchan as my friend, and Iida wants to see the wolves staying with him. As for Ochako, well she wanted the freedom of an adventure!"

"With friends and freedom, doing teen stuff without your parents, you know?"

Shouto blinked, as if agreeing that would be desirable.

"Once we get the wolves, we can get Kacchan. Once we have Kacchanl we can teach him how to communicate and be a human, and then we can get him to show us where the sword is-"

"Kacchan's a wolf?" Shouto gaped.

"No! No, I'm sorry, I must of phrased that wrong. How do I put this, he's like a wolf, only with a human's body."

"Uh huh.."

The Prince did not seem convinced.

"So how long will teaching a person to speak take?"

"W-we don't exactly now, and Iida's been trying to hunt down the wolves for years, so that's likely gonna take a long time too. If one guy took around three years, divide that by four guys then add that to... how long to teach him.. I'd saw two more years and-"

Deku mumbled away as Ochako waved her hands frantically and tried to laugh over him.

The more he spoke, the more he hurt their case.

"It may take a while, but the longer you spend with us, the more time to train to become stronger than your d-"

"The king!" Iida and Izuku both jolted to prevent the mistake, effectively earning a two-toned head darting towards them.

When he didn't speak, Izuku started to sweat. "So uh... that also means more time being a kid and having fun with friends. Like Ochako said... we can be free."

He knew it was frowned upon to abuse what he had learned of the Prince's upbringing against him. But, he was confident that the end result would shine over the unsavoury methods to achieve this. He seemed to be sacrificing a lot of his morals lately.

"So what do you say? Want to join us?"

Shouto thought for a while. Mismatched eyes looked up at the purple sunrise peaking through.

"I'm considering going our separate ways. We can arrange to meet back at mother's castle when you've obtained the sword. You don't want it yourselves, do you?"

Their argument had a major flaw. What the prince suggested had made total sense. It would keep him alive. It would motivate his survival. It would keep him from killing the king, and may even cause him to meet up with his mother more frequently in her castle.

Yet somehow, after exciting themselves over the possibility of having the strange prince travel with them, this idea felt bland and disappointing.

"What's the matter?" Shouto frowned at their crestfallen faces. "Oh, if you're doing this work in my favour I guess it would be right for me to pay you. I can offer you fifty now and a hundred after it's completed."

Ochako's mouth hung down to the floor. An impactful thud reverberated as her eyes reflected a glimmering stacked of gold.

Obilvious to this, Iida shook his head vehemently and Izuku put a finger against his lips.

"It's not that. It's just, we were kind of looking forward to having you coming with us."

Fingers scratched at green hair nervously. It wasn't every often he came across an opportunity to make friends.

Shouto stepped back into his horse.

He let the words linger, the earnesty in the green eyed boy's expression. The nod from the knight that followed it. Never in his life had anyone said something like that to him.

He had to admit, he was taken aback. It made him narrow his eyes and tilt his head away in suspicion, fighting off the pleasant burn in his chest. It spread as if he'd consumed a poison.

"If this is somehow a convoluted plot to... if my father paid you to do this, or if you're attempting to sell me to a bordering kingdom I'll kill you all right he-"

The prince's threats cut off by the sounds of incredulous, eye-opening laughter.

Real teenaged kids who had grown up with friends and freedom and family were before him. They hadn't even thought of selling princes for money or kidnapping or all the burdens he grew to fear.

In that moment, Shouto had an inkling instinct telling him he had nothing to be afraid of. Deep down, it somewhat stung that they were so happy.

They were everything he didn't have in life. Everything he wanted but couldn't have. Still, he couldn't help but desire their friendship. What was their world like? Would it welcome him? Would he enjoy it there, and find he never wanted to leave their company?

Breathing out a single smiling sigh, closing his eyes and stepping off of his horse, he answered.

"If that's the case, I guess I will go with you then."

The celebration that followed filled a part of him that had been empty for so long, he'd forgotten it existed.

Looking ahead at that innocent, relieved smile, Izuku almost felt guilty about lying.

* * *

 **Happy New Year! Yay, it's finally the year of season 3 - which is my favourite arc - let the countdown begin!**

 **Sorry if the start is a bit vague and confusing. Originally this was two chapters with a long and angsty argument, but I cut it out. Now, we finally have the end goal and plot laid out.**

 **I'll try and update ASAP before I go on hiatus, so thanks for the support.**


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